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THE 



PALACE OF THE GREAT KING: 



OR, 



THE POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODiTESS OF GOD, 

ILLUSTRATED m THE MULTIPLICITY AI^D 

VARIETY OF HIS WORKS. 



BY 



EEV. HOLLIS READ, 



* COMMERCE AND CHRISTIANITY," ETC. 



" Who by scarcMng can find out God." 






'^■^^^ 



NEW YORK 
0. SCRIBITER, 124 G R A :tsr D STREET. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

CHAELE8 SCRIBNEE, 

In tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



John F. Tkow, 
Printer, Stereotyper, nnd Electrotyper, 
377 & 379 Broadway, 
Cor. White Street, New York. 



PREFACE 



In offering to the public another volume, the writer would fain 
acknowledge the generous reception which his former publica- 
tions have met. If these gleanings from a Pastor's study — 
of which the present volume is another instalment — -have not 
the merit of illustrating some of the great themes and princi- 
ples which most vitally concern man here and hereafter, and 
which display the w^onder- working hand of Infinite goodness, 
skill and wisdom, then let them die the death — of all abortive 
books. 

The present volume is the result of long and careful inves- 
tigation — a patient collocation of facts from a great variety of 
sources — an attempt so to combine amusement and instruc- 
tion, the useful and the entertaining, as to challenge the lovers 
of fiction to the field of facts as not the less marvellous. He 
believes he has collected, within a tangible compass, an amount 
of varied and interesting knowledge on the subjects treated 
which will spare the reader the trouble and expense of search- 
ing through more libraries and books than are likely to fall in 
his way. The writer will esteem it recompense enough, if he 
may contribute any appreciable amount of influence to arrest 
the current of the reading world in its strange re veilings in 



4 PREFACE. 

the mazes of romance. He has endeavored to make a read- 
able book of FACTS, which '^ are stranger than fiction." 

It is a book from the world and for the world we live in — 
conducting the reader through the museum of the Great King 
— contemplating the Monarch on his throne — ^his royal attire 
— the crown-jewels in all their beauty — the concave of his 
Palace studded with ten thousand gems — the robes of glory 
he wears — his footstool wrought in all the skill and wisdom 
and variegated beauty which can please the taste or minister 
to the pleasure or profit of man. 

But we have done more than to survey the exterior of the 
Temple. We have essayed to enter the audience-chamber of 
the Great King, to search out God in the holy of holies of 
the upper Sanctuary. Who is this God that worketh so won- 
drously^ Can we form any conception of such mental re- 
sources — of such sleepless activities — of such power, benevo- 
lence and skill ? In our profoundest searches, when we have 
seemed to discover much, a voice from the inner Temple 
seems, in contempt of all human knowledge, to respond : 
^* Lo ! these are but parts of his ways ; but how little a por- 
tion is known of him." 

The character of the writer's books already before the pub- 
lic and the success they have secured, he fondly hopes, will 
bespeak for the forthcoming volume the same generous re- 
gard. 

Craneville, N. J., Sept., 1859. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Crystal Palaces — The Universe a Magnificent Palace — Endless Variety of the 
Divine Workmanship— No two Objects alike— The Insatiable Desires of the 
Mind— Its Love of Novelty and Yariety, . . . . . ,9 



CHAPTER II. 

Vaeieties Geological : — The nice adjustment of particles composing the Earth 
such as to secure all our various Soils — Productions — Minerals and Metals — 
Coal, Iron— Iron annihilated, and what then ? . . , . .24 



CHAPTER III. 

Vaeieties Geogkaphical : Cosmogony — The Earth as a Uniform Lump — The 
Earth as Variegated : Land, "Water, Mountains, Plains — How many things a 
Man requires in the Common Affairs of Every-day Life: Food, Apparel, 
House, and Implements of Labor, . . . . . . .89 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Elementary Particles of Things— Varieties Chemical — The same law of 
Variety pervades the Atomic World — " Ultimate Molecules," or Elementary 
Particles— The Particles composing a Kay of Light or Drop of Water, . 55 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

The YegetaWe Kingdom : No two Trees, Plants, Shrubs alike — No two Leaves, 
Flowers, Seeds, or Fruits— The Natures, Qualities, and Uses, how different. 
—The Abundance of Yegetable Productions— All formed of a few Elemen- 
tary Substances. ......... T4 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Animal Kingdom— The Scale of Life—^'hQ "Vast Chain of Being ''-• 
The Animal World a Counterpart of the Yegetable, . . . .90 

CHAPTER Vn. 

The Animal Kingdom: Species of Animals— Individual Varieties — Organs of 
Locomotion — Legs, Wings, Eyes, Ears, Noses — Clothing — Habitations — 
Weapons of Defence — The Feathered Tribes, ..... 104 

CHAPTER VHI. 

The Animal Kingdom — The Microscopic World : Variety of Temperament — Sa- 
gacity — Activity — Precocity — Productiveness— Migrations of Animals — Fish- 
es, . . . . . . . . . . .123 

CHAPTER IX. 

Man — His Physical Varieties — ^External Form — Color of Skin — ^Mechanism — The 
eye — Organs for Breathing; Digestion, Secretion; Nerves, Blood-vessels — 
Yoice— Upright Position— The Wrist and Hand— Jenny Lind's Voice, . 142 

CHAPTER X. 
Human Skill and Workmanship, ....... 163 

CHAPTER XL 

Man : All sorts of Men to make a World — Characteristics and Idiosyncrasies, . 175 

CHAPTER XIL 

Varieties Intellectual : Many Men of many Minds, or all sorts of Minds 
make a World, , . . . . . . . .186 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE 

Man and his Yarieties, in his endlessly-diversified conditions of life, . . 204 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Astronomical Yarieties: No two Worlds alike— Differ in Form, Bulk, Mo- 
tion—Inhabitants — Moral Yarieties among Worlds — Kedemption the Grand 
Moral Yariety of our World, ....... 215 

CHAPTER XV. 
How it takes all sorts of Saints to make a Heaven, . . . . .241 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Variety in Divine Truth, as suited to produce Yariety in Christian Character 
and Experience, ......... 255 

CHAPTER XVII. 

How various the dealings of Providence by which men are brought to the Sa- 
viour — and how various the manner by which the means of grace in dif- 
ferent individuals are made effectual, ...... 269 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Man's varied wants : Pood — Clothing — Habitation — ^Luxuries. Land, Sea, Mine, 
Forest, Eiver taxed to supply these wants. Mental Wants, — Moral Wants, . 283 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Man designed and adapted to a high State of Civilization in this Life, and a high 
State of Exaltation and Glory in the Life to come : or, the Model Man, . 298 

CHAPTER XX. % 

The same Subject : Examples of extraordinary development among men, as 
pledges of his high future destiny— Nature, Providence and Eevelation in- 
dicate this same high destiny — Man capacitated to appropriate the pro- 
visions made for his progress, ....... 811 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PAGB 

The Mind of God : The Infinitude of the Perceptions and Ideas in the Divine 
Mind, 829 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Divine Complacency — The Happiness of God in the Contemplation of his 
"Works and his Ways, and his own Attributes and Character, . . . 345 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

God in all and over all — Giving Life and Breath and all things — Inspired De- 
scriptions of God — How such views of God should aflFect us, . . . 36S 

CHAPTER XXr^. 

Conclusion : The claims of Natural Religion — The origin of False Religions — 
Their Philosophy and History — Reasons for one common universal Religion, 
and that Christianity, ........ 884 



THE 



PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 



CHAPTER I. 



Crystal Palaces — The Universe a Magnificent Palace — ^Endless Yariety of the Divine 
Workmanship— No two Objects alike— The Insatiable Desires of the Mind— Its 
Love of Novelty and Yariety. 

The present is the age of Crystal Palaces. The people of 
one nation are vying with those of another which shall raise 
the most magnificent dome and construct the most superb pal 
ace for the " exhibition of the skill and industry of all nations." 
As you pass through one of these stately edifices, you are as- 
tonished at the skill and power as seen displayed in the struc- 
ture and dimensions of the building itself; and yet more at 
the variety and multiplicity of the objects it contains. Here 
are the products and specimens of the skill not only of all na- 
tions, but of every variety and degree of individual taste and 
talent. Here are met the most rare, the most ingeniously 
wrought, and the most valuable, useful and ornamental fabrics 
that are to be found on the face of the earth, or made by the 
hand of man : " Shawls from India, robes from Eussia, and the 
bornoose from Africa, and linens, and silks, and fabrics of the 
finest texture and the most wonderful workmanship." 
1* 



10 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

The Universe is the Palace of the Great King. The skill 
and power engaged in the rearing and fitting up of this wonder- 
ful palace as far surpasses all human skill and power as the 
Creator surpasses the creature. This is Heaven's exposition of 
arts for all nations — and for all the principalities and powers — 
for all the orders of intelligent beings which inhabit the Uni- 
verse. In beauty, variety and multiplicity of objects ; in exu- 
berance of the imagination, and in the exquisiteness of the 
workmanship, it surpasses the utmost stretch of all human con- 
ception. 

We invite the reader to accompany us into this august Pal- 
ace, and to contemplate some of its wonders. As we enter the 
great Temple, we find ourselves encompassed on every side by 
the works and productions of Nature in forms infinitely diversi- 
fied. It would seem as if even Divine skill had been exhausted 
in the formation of the multiplicity and variety of objects pro- 
duced. 

In our proposed visit to the Palace, we will make the spe- 
cial object of our researches the variety of the Divine Work- 
manship. As we pass from one department to another, we 
shall meet nothing more profoundly to admire than the endless 
variety which pervades the whole. 

We contemplate with wonder the magnitude of the works 
of the Great Architect ; or the multiplicity of these works ; or 
we penetrate into the wonders of the microscopic world, and 
we are filled with wonder no less profound. Indeed, I scarcely 
know whether the student of Nature the more profoundly ad- 
mires the magnitude, the multiplicity or the minuteness of the 
Divine workmanship. In the contemplation of either he can 
only wonder and adore, but cannot comprehend. 



VASTNESS OF THE UNIYEESE. 11 

Directing his thouglits to the vastness of the material universBj 
to the inconceivably great quantity of matter which composes the 
countless number of worlds which fill infinite space, he finds 
himself conducted to the outermost limit of human observation, 
and even of human conception ; yet he meets no evidence that 
he approaches any limit of creation. We can form no adequate 
idea of material existences. When he has traversed space 
as far as he can by the aid of the most powerful telescope ; 
and when he has exhausted all his capabilities of calculation, 
he seems scarcely to have crossed the threshold of God's great 
material Temple. He can make no adequate estimate of the 
amount of material which God has called into existence. 
Were he to travel through space millions of millions of miles, 
and take his station on the remotest star, the least twinkling 
ray of which reaches us, he would see space beyond him equal 
to that which he had already traversed, and equally radiant with 
shining worlds. His own native earth is in comparison but as 
a grain of sand on the sea-shore. He can form no conception 
of a Being possessed with power adequate first to bring into 
existence, and then to reduce to law, and govern so many and 
such vast worlds. 

But if we pass from the magnitude to the minuteness of 
God's ^orks, we are, if possible, lost in still greater wonder. 
It comports more readily with our preconceived notions of the 
Infinite One, that he should do magnificently great things 
than that he should do exquisitely little things. We expect 
Omnipotence to exert great power, and to work on a magnifi- 
cent plan. But when we descend into the microscopic world, 
and contemplate the teeming, countless millions of minute liv- 
ing beings, and animalcules, so minute that myriads are not 



12 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

larger than a grain of sand, and may inhabit a drop of water, 
— and when we see these minutest of all living atoms, finished 
with a most exquisite touch of skill and beauty, our admiration 
of the Divine workmanship is, if possible, raised still higher. 
We now become sensible of a skill and delicacy of workman- 
ship which transcends all our highest conceptions of the Great 
Architect. 

The microscope reveals to the astonished eye an invisible 
world of living beings ; and all these, though their existence 
may not be detected by the naked eye, are endued with organs 
for locomotion, for hearing and seeing ; with nerves and blood- 
vessels, and the means of procuring and digesting their food 
and reproducing their species. And they present every con- 
ceivable variety of motion, form, size and color. How wonderful 
the skill that decked the wing of one of these marvellously 
minute little atoms of creation, and set the blood coursing in 
its veins. 

And wonderful as the discoveries of the microscope are, 
there is no intimation that they approach a limit. As at the 
other extreme of creation, every new power added to the tele- 
scope opens new fields of space still radiant with shining 
worlds ; and then beyond the scope of telescopic vision lie un- 
traversed fields, which, if viewed with a more powerful tele- 
scope, would reveal new systems and groups of worlds ; so no 
power that has hitherto been applied to the microscope has 
failed to reveal new worlds of animalcules. Every new dis- 
covery only serves to confirm the conjecture that a more power- 
ful instrument would unfold new worlds of wonder beyond. 

While we mean by the Universe, which we have called the 
Palace of the Great King, the grand summary of all the worlds 



MULTIPLICITY AND ENDLESS VARIETY. 13 

which God has made, and all the endless multiplicity of objects, 
animate and inanimate, vegetable and mineral, with which the 
Great Architect has furnished these worlds, yet we do not pro- 
pose to launch forth into so boundless a field for illustrations 
of our present theme, but shall confine ourselves chiefly to one 
small world, and for obvious reasons we shall select the planet 
with which we happen to be the best acquainted. The globe, 
called Earth, shall serve as the Palace through whose strangely 
diversified products of art and skill we will make a few desul- 
tory excursions, seeking illustrations of the wisdom, goodness 
and power of God: not so much from the magnitude and 
minuteness of his works as from their multiplicity and endless 
variety. Yet we shall not overlook the broad, starry concave 
of this earthly palace — the great dome of Heaven, studded 
with ten thousand stars, and thence stretching off into bound- 
less space as far as thought can travel. 

As we compare the heavenly bodies, system with system, 
star with star, and planet with planet, we shall discover the 
same infinite variety pervading the whole. 

The field of illustration is as broad as the entire arena of 
nature's works. The mineral, the vegetable, the animal worlds, 
are replete with examples to our purpose ; so is the condition 
and history of man, the ordinary dispensations of Providence, 
and the means of man's recovery from the fall. All indicate 
the profuse expenditure of the Divine goodness so to diversify 
and beautify his works and to vary his ways, as the most 
effectually to secure the happiness of his intelligent creatures. 
Who but God would have thought of the ten thousand ways 
he has adopted by which to make man happy ? 

Our subject is a pleasant one, and well suited to minister 



14 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

to the entertainment of the observant mind. But we have, in 
the following chapters, a higher aim. We hope to raise the 
mind to Nature's God, and to present him as a kind, benevo- 
lent, infinitely wise, and wonder-working Father, who is ever 
busy, even in the most inconceivably minute, and apparently 
insignificant domains of creation. We most devoutly wish to 
leave impressed on the mind of the reader the sentiment that 
such a God is worthy of the profoundest homage, of unbounded 
admiration and unfeigned love. Such contemplations on the 
workmanship of the Divine hand can scarcely fail to give us 
the most exalted idea of the skill, and wisdom, and benevo- 
lence of the great Author of creation. He not only makes and 
finishes every thing with an exquisite touch, which will bear 
the closest scrutiny, and creates an endless number of objects, 
. from the most inconceivably minute to the most stupendously 
grand, but he makes all things in such strange and endless 
diversity. No two objects have ever been found to be alike. 
And not only no two objects that exist at any one time are 
alike, but judging from the only premises we have on the 
subject, we may reasonably raise the query whether any two 
objects that ever existed from the beginning of creation, or 
that ever shall exist, are precisely alike. So exhaustless are 
the conceptions of the Divine mind, and so boundless his skill 
and power, that no two individuals of any species of animals, 
vegetables, or minerals, or any created existences, are ever 
found to be alike. In the human race, for example, though 
so marked uniformity everywhere characterizes the race that 
there is no fear of mistaking the human animal for an animal 
of any other species, yet no two individuals that now live, or 
ever did, or ever shall live on the globe, are alike. And, 



RESOUECES OF THE DIVINE MIND. 15 

perhaps, if due examination could be made, it would be found 
that in no one particular are they alike — in no organ, or 
feature, or member, or development of mind, or of moral 
qualities or affections. And such being the fact in respect to 
all the races of beings with which we are acquainted, we are 
justified in the inference that it is so throughout the boundless 
realms of creation. Variety is an essential characteristic of 
the works of the Divine hand. It equally decks the wing of 
the tiniest insect that sports in a single drop of water, and is 
met in the form, and motion, and magnitude of the hugest 
orb that rolls through space. 

But what an idea does this give us, at the very outset, of 
the exhaustless resources of the Divine mind ! The Author of 
the whole magnificent machinery of nature, and He that up- 
holds and directs the whole, and makes all its numberless 
parts, the minutest as well as the mightiest, to harmonize, must 
at the same moment have the whole, in all its infinite details, 
present to his mind. We wonder at the capabilities of the 
man who can with ease attend to all the details of a great 
business — who can plan, meet contingencies the most un- 
expected, direct the minds and labors of a great number of 
men, and make agencies the most various and apparently 
adverse all harmonize to achieve his one great aim — who can, 
at the same time, dictate a correspondence to agents abroad, 
and foresee there the casualties of business or trade, and meet 
contingencies which may occur thousands of miles distant — who 
has within his own measure a sort of omniscience and omnipo- 
tence. His active, busy, intelligent mind is the main-spring 
that sets in motion and directs every wheel of the great manu- 
factory, or that guides, in all its thousan-d details, the great 



16 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

mercantile house. It is his mind that guides the hand of 
every clerk, agent or workman. By night and by day, 
whetlier corporeally present or absent, his power is felt, his 
watchful eye is there — ^he has, as it were, diffused himself 
through the whole. But all comparison fails to illustrate the 
never-ceasing, the infinitely comprehensive activity of the 
Divine mind. 

The globe which we inhabit is but one of a countless num- 
ber of similar globes, some of which (as Jupiter) are fourteen 
hundred times larger than ours ; or if compared with the sun, 
or some other fixed star, its magnitude falls into insignificance, 
the sun being one million three hundred thousand times larger 
than the earth. Tet for a moment suppose our globe the only 
world which God has made, still what an idea do we get of the 
Eternal Mind. 

We select the period when he was about to enter upon the 
creation of our world. A perfect conception of the whole 
scheme must have lain in the mind of the Eternal One : the 
exact quantity of matter of which it was to consist; the struc- 
ture of the whole, so as to form the dry land and the ocean, 
the river and the mountain, the plain and the valley, all in 
their relative proportions and influences on one another; the 
placing of every particle, even the minutest, so as to form the 
rock, the soil, the endless variety of trees, shrubs, plants, 
grains and grasses ; as also, the mineral, the metal, and the 
precious stone. He must, too, at the same time, have seen 
and determined the shape of every leaf, the tint of every flower, 
the form, and size, and properties of every particle of inani- 
mate matter, and the number and variety, the organs and 
functions of all grades of animal life — all were vivid and per- 



ITS ]SnCE CALCULATIONS. 17 

feet eoneeptions in tlie mind of the Creator while as yet they 
were not made. 

We are lost in utter amazement when we attempt to form any 
idea of God as the author and the controller of the wonderful 
system of nature. Both in their original creation and in their 
subsequent control, what a vast multiplicity of objects required 
a constant attention ; what nice calculations to have adjusted 
in their respective places every body that rolls in grandeur 
over the boundless fields of ether, and every minute speck that 
floats in the air ; and to have adapted each to the other, so as 
to secure the balance of the whole, and preserve the harmony 
of the universal system. For the size and weight of the 
tiniest flower that decks the solitary glen, and the number and 
dimensions of the minutest insect, as well as the location of a 
mighty river, or the structure of the loftiest mountain, or the 
hollowing out of the channel of the sea, are equally the work 
of the Almighty, and equally require his sleepless care. 
Nothing short of Omnipotence and Omniscience could do 
either. 

And what a boundless field has God opened in the infinite 
diversity of his works for the unrestricted scope of mind, 
whether in the present state of existence or in the next ! He 
has been pleased to vary his works so as to please the eye, to 
gratify, to regale the mind, and to improve the heart. Variety, 
I have said, everywhere characterizes the Divine workmanship. 
The number of species and sub-species, where there is a marked 
diflerence, is immense ; but the moment you attempt to search 
out varieties of the same species you find yourself treading on 
the confines of infinitude. Here there will be found no two 
objects alike, not two blades of grass from the same root, or 



18 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

two leaves of the same tree, or two peas from the same 
stock. So endlessly diversified are the most common ohjects 
of nature, that you may ransack the three kingdoms without 
finding two the same. Variety is the order of all things. 

And love of variety is but coextensive with the endlessly 
diversified means and objects of its gratification. There is the 
love of variety in taste, in seeing, in hearing, in smelling and in 
touch. How would either of these senses tire with sameness ? 
Who could endure seeing, tasting, smelling or touching the 
same objects perpetually? But there can be' no such satiety. 
The provisions for the gratification of the senses are as varied 
as their wants. The eye which is never satisfied with seeing, is 
regaled with a succession of diversified objects ; the taste with 
every needed variety. And so w^e may say of the ear or of any 
other organ of sense. Sounds are vastly more diversified than 
even the objects which produce them: as the same object may 
generate different sounds as well as difi'erent degrees of sound. 
Indeed, the mind, through the organs of sense, may expatiate 
forever amidst new natures, combinations and relations, and 
never return and retrace its steps for the want of new objects. 
Nor need we stop here. We may pass from man's circum- 
scribed and transient state here to his higher and holier state 
hereafter, and we shall probably find the same principle not the 
less delightfully operative. The anthem sung in those blessed 
mansions, is, " Great and marvellous are thy tvorJcs, Lord God 
Almighty." 

And not only is it probable that no two objects belonging 
to our little planet are alike, but the same strangely wondrous 
feature, doubtless, characterizes the boundless fields of creation. 
God probably never cast two things in the same mould. 



INNATE LOVE OF NOVELTY. 19 

And, as a divine arrangement, this love of variety in the 
future world and the provisions made for its gratification, are 
certainly not less interesting than that of which I have spoken. 
Indeed, it is but the exact and beautiful counterpart of that 
variety. Man, both as to his mind, and his moral tastes and 
aspirations, is so constituted as to be continually reaching after 
some new thing. He feels an insatiable desire for novelty. 
And this propensity is observed to increase in proportion as 
man advances in civilization and knowledge. The untutored 
savage has very little of it. Its development is sometimes de- 
nominated curiosity — sometimes inquisitiveness, or the love of 
knowledge. It is the natural outgoing of the mind for some 
new thing. This was a characteristic of the refined Athenians 
and of the "strangers" — the philosophers and literati per- 
chance — that resorted to this renowned spot of ancient civiliza- 
tion and learning. " They spent their time in nothing else, 
but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." The desires 
of the mind are insatiable, and increase in proportion to their 
gratification. When it has traversed one field, hov^ever im- 
mense and varied that may be, it instantly craves another. 
The acquisition of one science or an acquaintance with one art 
only sharpens the mind for another ; and the greater its ac- 
quisitions, the stronger its desires for further conquests. Bacon 
or Newton had a thousand ungratified desires in respect to the 
acquisition of knowledge, where the mere ignoramus has one. 
And we are constrained to believe that the same increased and 
inciting desires characterize the highest created intelligences in 
the universe, and the same boundless fields invite their eternal 
researches. 

This reaching forward continually after some new thing or 



20 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

something not yet attained to — this dissatisfaction with any 
present acquisitions or enjoyments — this love of variety, is a 
constituent element in the mental and moral constitution of all 
intelligent beings, both men and angels — an essential part of 
their being ; and it forms for man a connecting link between his 
present and his future state of being. And not only so, but it - 
indicates what shall be the mental, and (if I may say so) the 
physical character and condition of that state of being, and 
what, in fact, the enjoyments and employments of the blessed 
above. Through all the endless multiplicity of objects here the 
mind may wonder and the heart expatiate and return dissatis- 
fied. Were it possible that a single individual of our race 
should visit every nation and tribe — every nook and corner of 
our globe, and become perfectly acquainted with the geography, 
the history, the botany and mineralogy of each — in a word, 
were he to know all of every science and art, and of every 
thing that may be known in this mundane sphere, and in this 
corporeal state, would the eye be satisfied with seeing, or the ear 
with hearing ? would the mind be satisfied, and the aspirations 
of the soul find their fulness ? Or rather, would not such a 
mind feel that all its past acquisitions were no more than pre- 
liminary to the acquisitions to be made in the boundless field of 
eternity ? At every step of his stupendous progress till he 
reached the grand acme of all possible human knowledge, his 
desires for something unattained were sure to keep in advance 
of his acquisitions, so that when he had arrived at the grand 
climacteric of all that may be known on this earth, these long- 
ings for new fields of knowledge were found to be increased in 
a ratio equal to all former acquisitions. 

It is only in the future abode of the blessed that all these 



THE HEAVENLY FIELD. 21 

desires can be gratified, and the soul, so singularly capacitated, 
sliall find a boundless range for its expanded and ever expand- 
ing faculties and susceptibilities. 

But will the spirit, thus endowed, when emancipated from 
the disabilities of earth and time, have a field for the further 
expansion and the perfect gratification of these insatiable de- 
sires for something new % The following pages, we trust, will 
afford at least a partial answer to this interesting inquiry. 
The great theme of contemplation and research and admiration 
among the blissful inhabitants of heaven, is the " works " and 
the '' ways " of God ; or rather God as seen and known in his 
works and ways. In proportion, then, as our facts and reason- 
ings go to show that the works of the Divine hand are bound- 
less in extent, and strangely and endlessly diversified^ they will 
furnish a pleasing evidence of the benevolence and wisdom 
of the Deity ; first, that he should so singularly endow the hu- 
man mind, and then, that he should, with such exhaustless 
liberality, fit up the universe with such a rich and boundless 
profusion of objects, and in all that unending variety, which 
can, to endless ages, give to the mind its full fruition of knowl- 
edge and bliss. 

But, as a matter of fact, does the human mind in its pres- 
ent condition, give signs of being possessed of faculties which 
shall require any greater range for its employment and gratifi- 
cationthan it now has % It undoubtedly does. We have only 
to reflect for a moment how much the mind of the intelligent 
man and the advanced scholar does grasp and retain in his 
present condition. When he has traversed in his investigations 
all the nations and countries on the face of the earth, and has 
stored his mind with ten thousand facts and ideas relating to 



22 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

the history, traditions, manners, customs of every nation and 
tribe, and has become acquainted with the whole circle of 
human sciences, arts, literature, inventions and discoveries, he 
feels no confusion — no repletion — no lack of capacity for more 
knowledge. All he has acquired has only sharpened his appe- 
tite, and enlarged his capacity for still greater supplies. From 
all we know and can discover of its capacities here, we can con- 
ceive of no limit beyond which the human mind may not go. 
Such capacities can find their counterpart only in the infinite 
multiplicity and the endlessly diversified character of the entire 
creation ; and with an endless duration for their study. 

Ask Newton, Locke, Edwards, if, in their respective fields 
of research, and after their vast accumulations of knowledge, 
they seemed to be nearing a boundary beyond which they did 
not care to pass, or beyond which their exhausted capacities did 
not seem sufiicient to carry them. They will rather tell you 
that they seemed scarcely to have embarked at all on the 
boundless ocean. They stood upon the shore, surveyed the 
illimitable expanse before them — ^were impelled by increasing- 
ly strong desires to launch away ; and never before did they 
feel themselves so capable of adventurous voyage. They 
needed only to be emancipated from the bondage of corporeity, 
in order to enter upon their eternal range in fields which know 
no bounds. 

I design in the present essay to speak of varieties geolo- 
gical and geographical ; varieties physical, mental and moral. 
Man, in his diversified relations and conditions, will furnish a 
rich and interesting field of illustration. The whole boundless 
world of life, animal and vegetable, is as varied as it is exten- 
sive. The " ways of God " — another name for Providence — 



OUR FIELD OF ILLUSTRATION. 23 

are, as we shall see, as varied as his works. And varieties as- 
tronomical will not form the least interesting portion of our as- 
signed task. Heaven's star-spangled concave is set with gems, 
which, in their sublime variety, equal the whole number of 
stars that shine in the firmament. 

And not the less to be admired, as we shall see, are the 
means which the God of Nature has provided for the production 
and support of variety both in the mental and moral as well as 
in the animal and vegetable worlds. Different soils and sur- 
faces, different climates and conditions of the earth, all com- 
bine to produce such a variety of vegetation ; and this variety 
of vegetation, combined with soil, surface and climate, goes, in 
turn, to increase animal varieties. And not only variety is a 
characteristic of all created things, but we everywhere discover 
a singular tendency in nature to produce variety. 

We shall begin with varieties geological. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Vaeiettes Geological: — The nice adjustment of particles composing the Earth 
such as to secure all our various Soils— Productions— Minerals and Metals— Coal, 
Iron — Iron annihilated, and what then ? 

When we speak of the creation of our world, and the fit- 
ting it up for the habitation of man, we may still have very in- 
adequate notions of the work in question ; and we are per- 
haps in more danger of overlooking the ivisdom and benevolence 
involved in the plan than we are the power engaged in the exe- 
cution. All had to be formed with the nicest regard to pro- 
portions, adaptations and adjustments. We admire the skill 
of a mechanist who can so arrange even a few scores of wheels 
as to secure some unusually beneficial end. Such a machine 
may extend over a few square perches of ground and may ac- 
complish eminently beneficial purposes. How much profound 
thinking — how many nice calculations — how many experi- 
ments has our machinist been obliged to perform, and how 
many failures to experience, before he could bring his work to 
any thing like a tolerable state of completeness. At its best 
estate it would have no perfection ; and the power and the 
quantity of matter employed, would be but as a grain of sand 
compared to the power and quantity of matter employed in the 
structure and motions of the earth only. But what is this 
when compared with the structure and successful operation of a 



THE PROPORTIONING OF THINGS. 25 

machine as boundless and complicated as the whole Material 
Univeuse ! 

The exact size, weight, motion, velocity and density of 
every star and planet, and every particle of matter, however 
small, were all calculated and determined on before a single 
thing could be created — the exact distance of one from another, 
and the precise relation of every separate particle to another 
and to the whole — how many particles should compose the 
leaf of the violet — what should be the precise mechanism of the 
eye of the molecule, or what the dimensions of the planet Ju- 
piter. A failure of any single part, however minute, would 
derange the entire system. 

But we propose to ourselves in the present chapter no such 
adventurous range. Not the structure of the Universe, but the 
structure and some of the compositions of the earth, will suffice 
for our present illustration. 

Had the earth, all below the surface, been formed one ho- 
mogeneous mass, and the surface one uniform soil, and its po 
sition in its orbit, and the inclination of its axis to the equa- 
tor been such as to produce but one uniform season, however 
salubrious that season might be, and however rich that soil, 
and however precious the material of which the bulk of the 
earth should be composed, the earth would be almost a useless 
and altogether an uninteresting ball. Very few of the pur- 
poses served by the earth now would be realized at all. A few 
beasts and birds and insects might roam over the earth and 
find an abode and food congenial to their several species. And 
a sparse human population of savage men might live a meagre 
life, but could never attain to a state of civilization. Arts, 
sciences, commerce would be almost, if not entirely unknown. 
2 



26 THE PALACE OP THE GEE AT KHSTG. 

There could be neither the resources nor the inducements for 
commerce; and where men and manners and soil and scenery 
and productions were all of the same uniform stamp, there 
would he as little inducements to travel. Uniformity in the 
structure and composition of the earth, and uniformity of sea- 
sons and climates, would produce an equally uniform stagna- 
tion in all human affairs. 

But how different the result of the actual condition of the 
earth. And this result is secured by the endlessly diversified 
character of its workmanship. Variety in structure, in compo- 
sition and arrangement has produced all our varieties of soils, 
of climates and seasons ; of minerals, metals and precious 
stones ; of trees, fruits, plants and vegetables ; of animals of 
every size, grade and condition ; and these in their turn fur- 
nish the materials and wants of commerce, and the inducements 
to travel. 

As we look over the surface of the earth, the first thing 
that arrests our attention is its inequalities. It is everywhere 
singularly variegated. It is thrown into ridges, hills and 
mountains, or scooped out in deep ravines and gentle valleys. 
It is intersected by rivers and streams, and dotted with lakes 
and smaller reservoirs of water. You may travel the world 
over, and everywhere meet with landscapes to admire, yet no 
two of these shall be alike — not even two features shall be the 
same. Each has its peculiar beauties and deformities — its own 
peculiar features — its peculiar shape, contour and composition 
— each affords a distinct lesson of study for all who " take 
pleasure " in the " manifold works of the Lord." 

But if we direct our attention to the material which com- 
poses the surface itself, we discover still clearer marks of a be- 



DIVERSITIES OF SOILS. 27 

nevolent design by a wise designer. The surface of the earth 
is the soil which gives birth and nourishment to all the endless 
varieties of vegetation which compose the vast vegetable 
kingdom. The surface of the earth, and to a considerable ex- 
tent below, seems everywhere strongly instinct with vegetable 
life — contains the vegetable principles or stamina of vegetable 
life : so that if the entire vegetation of the earth were cut off 
and quite annihilated, and all present seeds destroyed, there is 
that in the surface of the earth, and often found at a considera- 
ble depth under the surface, which would vegetate and deck 
the earth again in her varied robes. 

But it is the singular composition of the soil which de- 
mands our attention at present. For it is this which is one 
of the chief causes of the singularly diversified vegetation of 
which we speak. Like all the other works of God, the soil of 
all portions of the earth presents a general uniformity of char- 
acter. It is everywhere composed of essentially the same 
earths and mineral substances, and possesses the same general 
properties, to administer to the vegetating process and the 
growth and maturity of plants. Yet these same materials 
(the earth, the clay, sand, lime, marl, iron and various other 
ingredients) are skilfully mixed, and all their proportions so 
nicely compounded and varied, as to produce every conceivable 
variety of soil. What consummate wisdom, so to compound 
essentially the same ingredients as to form a soil of so diverse 
a character, and capable of giving existence to, and nourishing 
so diversified productions ! And this endlessly-diversified vege- 
tation, in turn, gives support to, and is, in a sense, the cause 
of, the equally diversified races and species of animals. A 
little change in the composition of the soil — a little difference 



28 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

in the proportions of lime, or clay, or sand, or iron, produce a 
soil as differently adapted to vegetation. 

We cannot here too profoundly admire the wisdom and 
beneficence of the Author of this arrangement. It is the basis 
of a scheme of arrangements in the animal kingdom, and in 
its bearings on the progress and happiness of the human race, 
which we shall have occasion yet more profoundly to admire. 

In the first place, this variety of soil, in connection, as we 
shall see, with differences of climate, fills the earth with God's 
riches. It supplies, in the greatest profusion and variety, all 
God's great family of living beings with food, apparel, shelter 
and luxuries. And not only does it supply these means of 
subsistence and comfort on the spot where they are needed and 
indispensable to the support and comfort of life, but, in con- 
nection with a kindred variety of composition met in the earth 
below the surface, it lays the foundation and supplies the re- 
sources of all our commerce^ and of the intercourse of the peo- 
ple of one nation or tribe with those of another. Commerce, 
which has been called the '^ great civilizer," and which is cer- 
tainly one of the most influential agencies of human progress, 
is, in its simplest idea, no more nor less than the great ex- 
change-trade of the world, which could have no existence ex- 
cept in the diversified productions of the earth. Its most 
simple idea is that of the exchange of the productions of one 
part of the globe for those of another. But of its reasons and 
advantages we will defer the consideration to its proper place. 

But we should quite overlook a very essential cause of Na- 
ture's profuse and varied vegetation, if we did not allude, at 
least, to the wonderful arrangement of evaporation. It is this 
which gives vitality, growth and vigor to every vegetable pro- 



EVAPORATION AND ITS USES. 29 

duction ; and wliich in turn secures, not only the continuance 
and prosperity, but the very existence of all animal and vege- 
table life. But for this stupendous circulation of the watery 
fluid through every vein and artery of the great body we call 
our globe, no vegetating process would be possible, no combi- 
nations of soils, no conditions of climate, could produce even 
the most stinted vegetation, or the most dwarfish animal ex- 
istence. In vain would you select the most favored soils, and 
consult never so wisely the character of climates, and sow your 
seed and cultivate with the most sleepless care, if the waters 
above and the waters beneath did not constantly minister to 
your aid. You would soon learn that it is only " through the 
scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs." 

But this healthful, life-giving arrangement is wholly de- 
pendent on another, not the less wonderful. It is evaporation. 
The rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. For, by a 
process as wonderful as it is grand, these same waters return, 
drawn up into the atmosphere by means of evaporation, satu- 
rating the whole expanse of the atmosphere in the form of 
vapor, and after serving essential and beneficial purposes to 
animal and vegetable life in their vaporous state, they descend 
in refreshing showers on the earth, prepared, after having per- 
formed their benevolent mission here, to repeat their benefi- 
cent circuit through ocean, air and earth to the end of time. 

The magnitude and extent of this singular arrangement, 
as well as its godlike beneficence, is but imperfectly understood 
and but scantily appreciated. '• From the whole surface of 
the ocean," says Dr. Dick, " there arises, every twelve hours, no 
less than thirty million cubic feet of water, which is more than suf- 
ficient to supply all the rivers on the earth. This immense body 



30 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of water is formed into clouds, and carried over every part of 
the continents ; and again it is condensed into rain, snow or 
dews, which fertilize the earth. Should this process pause, we 
might wash our clothes, but centuries would not dry them, for 
evaporation alone produces this effect; vegetation would 
wither ; rivers would swell the ocean ; the operations of nature 
would cease." So close is the connection between this process 
and vegetable and animal life. " Praise the Lord, for he 
causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth." 

But it is time that we go heloio the surface — yet we no 
sooner descend than we meet, in depths " which no fowl 
knoweth and which vulture's eye hath not seen," the same 
characteristic. Out of a few simple elementary substances the 
Divine Architect has formed the richest variety of minerals and 
metals for the use of man. At one moment you strike on a 
rich bed of coalj extending over acres, and in some parts of 
the world, as in America, over hundreds of square miles, and 
containing enough of this truly valuable substance to supply 
the demands of the whole world, for fuel, and all the purposes 
of manufacturing and locomotion for ages to come. Next you 
hit upon a bed of iron, which being, like coal, a substance in- 
dispensable to the comfort and advancement of man, and de- 
manded in exhaustless quantities, is found very universally 
diffused, and in the greatest abundance. 

Another of earth's great internal varieties we meet in tlie 
shape of stones and rocks. These are yet more commop than 
either of the substances named, and of the most varied and ex- 
tensive use to man. And, different from coal or iron, stone 
exists in ahriost every conceivable variety, from the hardest, tlie 
quartz, the flint, the granite and the marble, down through all 



METALS AND IMINERALS. 31 

grades and qualities, to the soft soap-stone, the fibrous asbestos 
and the singularly lamellated mica, all useful in their way, and 
capable of being used in a great variety of ways — for building 
and ornamental carved work — for fences and furnaces — for 
roads and bridges — for paving and flagging walks and streets 
— as a flux for the fusing of metals — a manure for the soil — 
for the construction of a great variety of vessels and utensils in 
daily use, and for numberless and nameless purposes in the 
common pursuits of life. And the quantities found in the 
earth, and in those colossal mountain-piles above the surface, 
are wisely proportioned to the extensive demand. 

We scarcely need enumerate the various other useful sub- 
stances which are discovered to exist in the same earth, and 
which have all been found there, and carefully stored away and 
from the beginning kept in reserve for the use of civilized man ; 
and many of them kept in reserve for man when he shall ar- 
rive at a higher state of advancement than he has yet reached. 
Lead, copper, tin, zinc, sulphur, mercury — gold, silver, dia- 
monds and precious stones — all these and numerous others, are 
met as the varied forms into which matter has been moulded by 
the plastic hand of Nature for the service of his creature man. 
And, no doubt, new substances remain yet unrevealed in the 
arcana of nature, which, when brought to light, shall as effec- 
tually minister to the same purpose. Nor would we omit to 
notice the wise regard had throughout the whole to the differ- 
ent quantities which has been provided of each kind — how the 
quantity is proportioned to the demand, or the need man has 
of it. If gold or silver had been made as abundant as iron or 
coal, it would have been of very little service. You could 
neither use it for fuel, nor convert it into steam, nor give it 



32 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KIIS^G. 

shape or form for building pavements, roads or bridges. Or 
if iron and coal had been formed only in the limited quantities 
in which silver and gold exist, it would be, if possible, still 
more disastrous. It would be practically the same as if they 
did not exist at all ; and man in such a case could not have 
advanced beyond the rude condition of the savage. 

We cannot even form any probable estimate of the whole 
amount of coal or of iron which the entire earth actually con- 
tains. Yet we are able to say from facts alrea-dy known, that 
the amount is enormous. It is, we believe, well ascertained 
that there are, in the United States of America, at least, 163,000 
square miles of coal fields. And as geological surveys and 
mineralogical researches are extended from year to year, the 
area, vast as it already is known to be, is continually enlarg- 
ing. The quantity of coal which lies beneath the surface of a 
single square mile, or even a square acre, is vastly more than 
one would at first suppose. To say nothing of the great coal 
fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, which 
abound in coal, beyond any credible estimate that w^e can 
make in tons or car-loads, we are astonished at the estimates 
which we see made, from time to time, of the amount of this 
article contained in some particular field of quite limited ex- 
tent. Such an estimate we recently saw made of the quantity 
of coal contained in two counties in Virginia. Mr. Eidgeway, 
civil engineer and geologist, estimates the amount of merchant- 
able coal in Hampshire and Hardy counties at 1,560,000,000 
tons at the lowest calculation. And within the same area of 
coal-grounds, he locates 375,000,000 tons of " nodular argilla- 
ceous iron ore ; besides 135,000,000 tons of the siliceous fossil- 
iferous " variety of iron ore found in the rocks of the Knobby 
Mountains. 



COAL AND lEON IN THE SAME FIELD. 33 

What is noticed here in reference to the comparative ex- 
tent of coal and iron fields — the two occupying nearly the same 
extent — is found to be tj'ue in reference to most of our coal 
and iron grounds. They are not only nearly similar in ex- 
tent ; but, what is worthy of notice as another instance of 
benevolent design, they are, to a considerable extent, identi- 
cal. Coal and iron are generally found in the same fields — an 
arrangement not only favoring the easier transportation of the 
two articles to all parts of the country and of the world — the 
same facilities of conveyance serving for the two — ^but, in the 
absence of other fuel, the coal becomes invaluable for smelting 
the iron and otherwise preparing it for use. 

There is infinite wisdom and benevolence in so proportion- 
ing these various substances precisely as to meet our wants. 
There is no useless profusion of silver or gold or precious 
stones ; there is no lack of the substances which we need 
in the greatest abundance. The one we have by the acre and 
the mile ; the other, by the pound and the pennyweight. 

We have seen how the diversified character of the earth's 
surface becomes the means of feeding, clothing, housing, and 
in every way administering to the necessities and luxury of 
God's great and varied family of living things ; and we have 
seen, in a like diversified character of the many useful sub- 
stances found in the bowels of the earth, the materials, and the 
means of carrying on, and, in a sense, the origin of every use- 
ful trade and handicraft of man — of every human improvement 
— of the whole manufacturing interests of the world — and of 
a great part of human activity. How soon would the din 
of the world's business be hushed and the ponderous wheel of 
human activity be arrested, if the earth should for a single 
2* 



34 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

year refuse to yield her useful niinerals and metals. Indeed, 
what disaster would follow, if a single one should be refused. 
The great machine would be deranged, if not effectually stopped, 
if but one were wanting. We select iron^ the most useful and 
therefore the more striking, yet but one of the many useful in- 
gredients which the earth yields for man. Yet were some 
convulsion in nature to annihilate our coal, or copper, or lead, 
or zinc, we should, in like manner, find ourselves brought to a 
complete nonplus in the great arena of life's business. So 
familiar are we with the use of iron, as an article that abounds 
almost as a matter of course, that we are scarcely in a position 
fully to estimate its value ; yet we can easily see that without 
it man could scarcely take the first step towards civilization. 

Suppose for a moment, then, that some mighty magician 
had the power, by one motion of his wand, to annihilate all the 
iron, of every kind and combination, now in use or in the 
mine, in the whole world — that henceforth iron should be no 
more ; what would be the consequence % The disaster would 
doubtless be vastly more extensive and calamitous than you 
may at first suppose. 

You are a hardware merchant, or a machinist ; or you have 
an interest in a mine, or a foundery, or a railroad, or a steam- 
boat — or may belong to almost any craft, or trade, or calling. 
You have, as we will suppose, of an evening, made your last 
entry in your book of accounts, and are complacently giving 
yourself up to a pleasant revery on the progress and prospects of 
the age: "It is a wonderful age ! What vast mechanical opera- 
tions now keep the world in motion ! — what stupendous manu- 
factures ! — what an array of shipping begirds our great emporiums 
of trade ! — what majestic steamers plough our inland waters and 



IRON ALL ANNIHILATED. 35 

bridge our oceans ! — what a wonderful concatenation of railways 
checker our land in every direction ! — with what lightning speed 
news is communicated a thousand miles distant! — what mining 
and smelting, and casting of metals, and hammeiing into every 
conceivable article of use or ornament! — and what crowded 
warehouses ! It is a wonderful age ! " But your pleasant 
revery is suddenly disturbed : 

A messenger hastily enters and announces that every 
manufactory of the world, of every size and power, has ceased 
to act, and ceased to be. All their varied and costly machin- 
ery has vanished into air, and those huge structures are dis- 
mantled and tumbling to the ground. The 30,000,000 cotton 
spindles of the world have forever ceased to twirl — all the 
great and all the small manufacturing interests of the world 
have died, not to be revived — every wheel turned by steam or 
made of iron has stopped, and the wheel is gone. All our 
thousand and one labor-saving machines are no more — al- 
ready is the dial of human advancement turned back some 
centuries. And what has caused this disaster? Nothing, 
nothing except the failure of the ieon, of which all this vast 
array of machinery is composed. This one article subtracted, 
and all the machinery in the world would fall into ruins. 

While he was thus speaking, there came another, who de- 
clared that the 25,000 miles of railroads in America, and 
the 30,000 miles in England and on the Continent, are di- 
vested of their rails and become useless — that all our long 
trains of richly-laden and heavy-burdened trains shall be seen 
winding their way, as a vast thing of life, no longer — that all 
our commodious, beautiful cars, and powerful locomotives, out- 
stripping the wind in their speed, have fallen to the ground 



36 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

— that all our canal-boats and steamships are only confused 
masses of planks and timbers, with no connecting bolts or bands 
or stanchions — that not a carriage, or wagon, or dray or barrow, 
remains for the locomotion of man or freight, but all things are 
thrown back into the savage state, when men moved from place 
to place on foot, and transported whatever was to be moved on 
their backs. And again, why all this ? Nothing has disap- 
peared but that very common and cheap article called iron. 
Without this, railways are nothing ; cars, carriages, sailing ves- 
sels and steamers, can have no existence without the strong 
bands and bolts of iron. 

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, who 
said that all our 100,000 miles of telegraph lines, divested of 
their connecting, intelligence-conveying wires, stand useless 
and alone ; that the boon we had hoped for from the genius 
of a Morse, should never be realized. 

But the calamity stops not here. While the last bearer of 
sad tidings was yet speaking, there came another also, who 
said that all the tools, and utensils, and labor-saving con- 
trivances of the farmer and the mechanic had instantly dis- 
appeared — axes, saws, planes, chisels, augurs; hoes, shovels, 
ploughs, harrows ; chains— all had gone except their handles or 
frames ; and henceforth agriculture could be pursued no further 
than could be performed by the unassisted hand, or by rude 
implements of wood ; and the mechanic would be aided only 
by such tools as could be wrought out of stone. 

While he is yet speaking, another, with saddened visage, 
enters to proclaim that the desolating calamity has entered our 
houses, and spread its ruin about our firesides— that most of 
our cooking vessels have vanished, that our stoves are no more, 



THE WORLD AT A STAND. 37 

that our knives and our forks, our pocket-knives and our razors, 
and most of tlie furniture of our houses — that our weapons of 
war and implements of peace are nowhere to be found ; yea, 
more frightful still, the doors of our houses are falling down for 
the lack of hinges, the floor-boards are springing from their 
fastenings, the boards falling from their sides, and the shingles 
flying from the roof. 

All these things, and vastly more, would follow were we 
deprived of the use of iron. The world would at once seem to 
be brought to a dead stand — at least would be thrown back 
into a state of barbarism. ISTothing would remain that would 
deserve the name of agriculture, or manufacture, or commerce. 
Navigation would be unknown ; the art of printing, a very 
meagre affair ; and the mechanical arts nothing worthy the 
name. And all this for the lack of iron. 

And so we might say, though in a different degree, of other 
metals and minerals. Copper, lead, zinc, lime, granite, and, 
more than all, coal. Each holds a place as an agent of human 
advancement, which, if left vacant, human affairs would be 
thrown into the saddest disorder, if not arrested. Without coal, 
iron would to a great extent be useless ; and without lime, and 
granite, and marble, and the harder and softer strata of rocks, 
many other resources of nature would exist in vain. 

Nothing less than Omniscience could have so anticipated the 
wants even of the present advanced condition of the world, and 
have provided iron, and coal, and stone, in such superabundant 
supplies as to meet such a demand ; and not only this, but to 
meet the vastly increased demand of a coming age. Such 
fields of coal and of iron as are met with in America ; and 
such mines of lead, and copper, and zinc ; and such piles of 



38 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT Kll^G. 

marble, and granite, and other valuable stone as our lofty 
mountains contain, fully bespeak the foresight and the benevo- 
lent design of God. Pie delights in the prosperity of his 
people, and he has undoubtedly provided every resource which 
the race can need as it shall exist in a vastly advanced con- 
dition. 



CHAPTER III. 

Yarieties Geographical : Cosmogony— The Earth as a Uniform Lump— The Earth 
as Yariegated: Land, Water, Mountains, Plains — How many things a Man 
requires in the Common Affairs of Every-day Life : Food, Apparel, House, and 
Implements of Labor. 

A GEOGRAPHICAL survey of the earth equally impresses on 
the mind an idea of the singularly diversified character of 
Nature's works. As the eye glances over the surface of our 
globe, it sees it beautifully diversified with sea and land, 
mountain and plain, hill and valley, river and lake ; and we 
at once discover such an arrangement to be replete with that 
benevolence which the Creator has everywhere shown towards 
his creatures. And the result of such an arrangement is, that 
boundless variety of vegetable productions and animal life, 
v/hich everywhere regales the eye of man with an endlessly 
variegated scenery — that administers to the varied tastes and 
supplies the numerous wants of all living creatures — that occu- 
pies the mind on a thousand different objects^ and continually 
presents new scenes of pleasure and new reasons for praise. 

Had it been the design of the Former of the earth simply 
to have added another to the countless number of worlds which 
previously existed — a globe that, like other planets, should 
run its destined rounds about the sun, reflecting the light of 
that luminary, and blending its own with the stars of the fir- 



40 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

mament — there had been no need that the earth should be 
more than a mass of one uniform substance, the sea and the 
dry land mingled in one chaotic mass ; no need that the 
waters should be gathered together in pne place, and the dry 
land appear. All might have been one uniform, unbroken, 
dead lump, without hill or valley, lake or river, shrub or tree, 
flower or fruit ; without soil, climate, or atmosphere ; without 
mineral or metal. It could still have performed its journeys 
about the sun, and twinkled as a star in the heavens. But it 
Was the design of Infinite Benevolence to make the earth a fit 
habitation for an inconceivable variety of living beings ; and 
especially to carry out purposes of infinite moment in respect 
to his creature — man. Hence the profuse expenditure of the 
Divine skill in fitting up the earth as we now find it. In the 
one case, the earth would have been one unbroken desolation. 
No towering mountain or fertilizing river would have broken 
the monotoBy of the view ; no sloping hill or smiling valley 
could have greeted the eye ; no tribes of animals gambolled 
over the fields, or animated the crust of the earth, or sported 
in the waters. No living verdure could have smiled in the 
meadows, and no gushing plenty been poured into the lap of 
every living thing. 

Such seems to have been the condition of our earth when 
first brought to notice by the sacred historian. It "was with- 
out form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep." 
Yet it was probably as well fitted then as it is now to act its 
destined part as a planet in the great system. It then possessed 
the same bulk and weight, and the same motion and velocity 
in its orbit about the sun. But the Sovereign Euler had other 
designs : He would fit up the earth to be a suitable habitation 



THE EARTH A FOEMLESS LUMP. 41 

for man, and make it, too, the theatre for the most wonderful 
display of his wisdom and goodness as a creator and governor, 
and his superabounding mercy as a Saviour. 

Our idea may be presented thus: A highly intelligent 
stranger from a neighboring world visits our planet at the two 
different periods referred to. We will suppose him endowed 
with such locomotive powers that he may with ease transport 
himself almost instantaneously to any portion of the earth's 
surface, and whose organs of vision are such that he can, from 
any one point, survey at the same moment a whole continent. 

Our heavenly visitant shall first alight upon our earth at 
the close of the "first day." Heretofore it had been one 
chaotic mass, '^ without form and void;" waste and empty, 
and darkness covered its unseemly face. This darkness had 
now been scattered, and the waste and dreary ball was now 
revealed to the light of heaven. But what a scene to behold ! 
What a field to traverse ! He wanders from equator to pole, 
and from pole to equator, and all is but one dead lump of 
uniformity. There is no sea, no dry land ; no rivers or moun- 
tains, no gushing streams or smiling fields ; no sporting ani- 
mals or singing birds ; no forests or cooling shades, or fragrant 
flowers ; no picturesque landscape or change of scene ; no 
busy towns and pleasant villages; no din of busy men or 
children playing in the streets — though possibly there might 
be a few stunted, monotonous shrubs, and a few dwarfish, 
starveling animals to browse upon the tasteless herbage, and to 
drag out a cheerless life ; and a few tribes of more dwarfish, 
savage men, to starve out a miserable, monotonous existence 
on what they might, with their hands as their only weapons, 
seize of these famishing animals ; yet such a covering of the 



42 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

earth, such animal existences, would do little to gratify the 
eye of the spectator. All would be dreariness and desolation. 
No pleasant landscape would greet the eye, no sweet music the 
ear ; nothing to gratify the taste, and no varied objects over 
which the mind might expatiate, and reason, and • compare. 
And for food, no more than the scantiest pittance which could 
possibly meet the sheerest necessity. The whole surface of the 
earth was then a ''desolate, dreary, hideous waste, without 
order or beauty, inhabitants or furniture." 

Yet in this chaotic mass lay mingled all the elementary 
principles, all the essential ingredients out of which have been 
formed all the boundless multiplicity of objects which now 
minister either to the wants or the luxuries of God's great 
family of living beings. But what a change the moment this 
huge lump of clay was taken in hand by the Divine Potter ! 
Wonderful indeed is the transformation now effected by the 
skill and the benevolence of the Great Architect! What 
shapes and forms of matter, and what modes of life; what 
exhaustless provision made for the sustenance and happiness 
of every grade of life ; what wise and benevolent adaptations 
of one thing to another ; and out of a very few elementary or 
simple substances, what a countless number of objects have 
been formed, and into what an inconceivable variety of animal, 
and vegetable, and mineral, and metallic existences has matter 
been moulded ! Now we see it shaped into a colossal mass 
and piled up in the form of a huge mountain that towers above 
the clouds ; now it gilds the wing of the smallest insect. In 
one instant it is moulded into the framework, and muscles, 
and sinews of the huge elejjhant ; in another circulates in the 
invisible minute particle of blood that circulates in the veins of 



THE EARTH FITTED UP FOR USE. 43 

the millions of monads that sport in a single drop of water or 
recline beneath the shade of the down of the rose-leaf Water, 
air, gases, odors, perfumes, are but different forms or com- 
binations of matter — of a few elementary substances ; yet what 
can differ more than a metal dense as gold or a rock as hard 
as granite, and the perfume from a single particle of musk, 
which is so subtle as to fill a room for years. 

But we will accompany our illustrious stranger, as he deigns 
his second visit to this terrestrial ball. Time had rolled on — 
the earth as impelled by the hand of Omnipotence, had been 
performing his annual rounds, and, as he had been witness, 
the Divine Architect had all this time been moulding and 
shaping, creating and transforming, till the earth was made to 
exhibit its present and beautiful aspect. By means of some 
mighty convulsion, of which we can form no adequate idea, the 
waters had been gathered together in one place, and formed 
the sea ; the lofty mountains had ascended from beneath, and 
the hills and the valleys were formed ; and by a series of com- 
motions which agitated every separate particle of matter, rocks, 
soil, every species of earth, mineral and metal, were formed, 
particle finding its kindred particle, while a stupendous chemi- 
cal process was going on ; and all in obedience to the Divine 
fiat — even the minutest process is watched over by the Om- 
niscient eye. The result of the process is the incomprehensi- 
ble variety which characterizes every created thing. 

We will first survey the expanse of waters ; and what wis- 
dom at once appears in their distribution. Though there be 
essentially but one body of water, yet how is this one great 
body divided into oceans, seas, lakes, creeks, bays, harbors, 
. rivers ; and all these so disposed of and arranged in reference 



44 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

to the land as to subserve the most effectually the purposes of 
evaporation, irrigation, and commerce. 

Not only is the ocean itself one of Nature's great varieties, 
but it is in all its details full of beauty and variety. The ele- 
ment that composes the ocean — its general characteristics — 
the color, motions and phosphorescent appearance of the ocean 
— its tides, and rolling billows when agitated — the beauty and 
singularity of many portions ^ of its bottom, especially where 
ornamented with coral formations — the unique mode of travel 
on water — and the altogether novel world of living beings 
which are met in the deep, distinguish the great water-world 
from the dry land. Here we meet a new order of life, new 
modes of subsistence, of habitation, and of locomotion. And 
though the ocean contains caverns deep and dark, into which 
no human eye has penetrated, and which are full of the mon- 
sters of the sea, and of every living thing that swims or creeps, 
both small and great ; and though from the nature of the case 
we can know very little of the inhabitants of the deep, yet we 
know enough to be able to affirm that the same love and law 
of variety governed the Divine mind in the creation of the sea 
and in all that pertains thereunto, as in the creation and the 
fitting-up of the dry land. Life appears here likewise in the 
greatest possible variety, and in the most lavish profusion. 

But we will rather betake ourselves to the dry land, where 
we shall meet a more familiar, if not a more obvious illustration 
of our theme. 

As we pass from the equator to either pole, we meet a cli- 
mate varying with every successive degree of latitude, and we 
meet correspondingly changing seasons, vegetation and animal 
life. And man, too, tliough a native of all lands and climates, 



DIVERSIFIED VEGETATION. 45 

differs in a thousand peculiarities as you meet him in different 
latitudes : it may be only in stature, or the color of the hair, or 
hue of the skin, or contour of the face. We see the different 
portions of land, continents and islands, so shaped and so ar- 
ranged in their relation one to the other, and to the surround- 
ing waters, and so curiously scalloped with capes, and promon- 
tories, and peninsulas, and so tastefully intersected with rivers 
and streamlets, and dotted with lakes and lesser reservoirs of 
water, as to excite a never-ceasing admiration. All is con- 
structed with a singular love of variety. 

Nor does the interest cease when we come to inspect the 
several continents separately. Not a square rood of the whole 
— not a square yard that does not present a thousand varieties. 
We are at first struck with the variety of the external features 
of a continent as a whole. It is diversified with mountains 
and hills, and gentle risings of every conceivable length, 
height and declivity. Some towering above the clouds and 
clad in everlasting snow ; some belching forth, in terrific 
grandeur, volumes of fire and smoke, and rivers of liquid rock ; 
some clothed in trees of evergreen and waving gracefully to 
the breeze ; others as bleak and rude as if beaten by the storms 
of a thousand winters. Some are covered to their very sum- 
mits with the rich products of the husbandman, and, sloping 
beautifully to the plain, bear on their bosom fertile fields and 
richly-laden orchards. It is, too, diversified with plains and 
valleys, groves and forests, rivers, creeks and streamlets of 
every possible description ; with cascades, lakes and ponds ; 
and with a soil and productions as various as climate and lati- 
tude. Tropical grains, fruits, flowers, spices ; vegetables, min- 
erals and metals, are succeeded by their kindred varieties in a 



46 - THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

temperate zone ; while, as we pass further northward, we are 
again greeted with new varieties not less pleasing or useful. 

Again, we find each continent divided into a number of 
states or kingdoms, and inhabited by different tribes of men. 
All these nations and tribes differ in respect to government, 
laws, institutions and political economy. Perhaps no two of 
them speak the same language : at least they differ in dialect, 
in the tone of the voice, in the features of the face, and in the 
hue of the skin. And they differ more in manners and cus- 
toms ; in their food and the manner of preparing it, and of 
taking their meals ; in the style and material of their cloth- 
ing ; in the fashion and workmanship of their habitations ; in 
their occupations and ways of working ; in their modes of 
thinking, and the manner of expressing their thoughts ; and in 
their religion and modes of worship. 

Some people have their food served on a table spread with 
dishes — sit in chairs, and eat with knife, fork and spoon ; 
others sit upon the ground, and eat from the common dish, or 
trencher, or loaf, with their fingers. Some eat with silver 
forks, others with steel forks, and a vastly greater number eat 
with no forks at all. They deem it more sensible to use the 
more flexible forks which nature has very kindly appended to 
the end of their hands. Some people sit in chairs, others sit on 
their heels, others sit cross-legged, others don't sit at all, but 
recline. Some men wear hats, of every conceivable shape and 
size ; some wear caps as 'multiform ; and more wear turbans. 

Or if the inquiry turn on the vegetable, mineral or annual 
productions of the different portions of a continent, wc shall 
discover the same varied profusion, to meet the wants and to 
minister to the tastes and luxuries of man. Each climate ha». 



PKOFUSE SUPPLY OF MAN'S WANTS. 47 

its own peculiar productions, differing from those of any other 
climate. Were we able to enumerate all the various kinds of 
grains, meats, vegetables and fruits which compose our diet, 
and the variety of drinks which we may enjoy as the indige- 
nous productions of our own soil, we should have some faint idea 
of Heaven's bounty towards his creatures. And we get the 
same impression when we contemplate the boundless profusion 
which God has created by which to supply the wants of man 
in respect to clothing, habitation, and the various means of 
improvement. How many different fabrics, suited to the dif- 
ferent seasons of the year, and to his convenience, comfort or 
luxury, are provided in a single region of country ; and how 
many different materials for the construction of his house ; and 
how many more for weapons of defence and the implements of 
his craft, and for all his labor-saving machines. 

And if we here bring into the account the idea of the ex- 
change of commodities — the idea of a commerce, which adds to 
the productions of each individual country the productions of 
every other country, we then get a vastly enlarged idea of the 
profuse benevolence of Heaven tow^ards man. 

Except it be on mature reflection, we have but a very in- 
adequate conception of the multiplicity of productions and ma- 
terials which we use in our common every- day life ; and of the 
varied labor and skill which are forced into our service either 
to supply our necessities or to minister to our luxuries. It is, 
however, only for the civilized and more advanced state of man 
that the Universal Father has provided such bountiful and 
varied resources. Man in his savage condition needs little, 
and appropriates little to his use. Had Providence had re- 
spect to man only in his barbarous condition, and had he been 



48 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

pleased that he should remain in that condition, he would 
have formed neither the mine nor the quarry, the field bearing 
its rich and varied harvests, nor the cattle on the hills ; nor 
would he have endowed man with such diversities of gifts, and 
with such a versatility of genius and talent. So multiform and 
so multifarious, indeed, are the supplies provided for all man's 
wants and wishes, that the most fertile imagination can scarce- 
ly conceive of one which Nature has not provided for, either in 
the shape of a direct product, or in the inventive genius, or the 
artistic skill of some secondary agent who can produce it. 

We will call up a few instances by which to illustrate the 
thought. We will take for our first example a common labor- 
ing man, a mechanic or a farmer ; and we shall see that his 
simple wants imply an amount and variety in the provisions 
God has made for his support, which we did not at first an- 
ticipate. And, further, we will suppose this individual to need 
only a house and its furniture, food and apparel, modes of con- 
veyance, and the tools and implements of his calling. Yet we 
shall see how he seems to be taxing the industry and skill of 
the world to supply only a part of his wants. I shall not at- 
tempt to enumerate all the ways and means by which these 
wants are supplied, but may name enough to give force to the 
above remarks. We will first take the man, cap-a-pie^ as he 
stands ; and then, as he eats, sleeps and works. 

We begin with his hat : how many materials enter into its 
fabric — its body of fur and wool — its lining of silk, leather and 
paper— its sizing, band and buckle, of materials brought from 
different quarters of the globe. How many persons are en- 
gaged in trapping the beaver, and preparing the fur — how 
many in growing the wool (after that pastures had been made 



HOW MANY HANDS MAKE A MANS COAT. 49 

by the Hand divine with a befitting soil to rear the grass that 
fed the sheep), and in carding and preparing the wool for the 
felt — how many in cultivating and feeding silk-worms, and 
winding and weaving and coloring the silk — how many persons 
engaged and how many materials used in tanning, dyeing, and 
preparing the leather, and in making the paper. And when 
all the materials for the structure are made ready, then how 
many operations are performed, and how many persons em- 
ployed in the manufacture itself: to say nothing of the different 
minerals and metals and woods used either in dyeing and manu- 
facturing, or in the form of implements, vessels and tools. 

In the preparation of his coat a like variety of agents and 
materials are employed : the growing of the wool, the carding, 
spinning and weaving — the fulling and dressing of the cloth, 
and the cutting, sewing and making the garment. And to all 
these we have to add, as not the least in the account, all the 
metals and minerals, and the numerous other substances which 
compose the machinery used for the various manufacturing 
operations to which I have referred. Could we annihilate every 
field, and mine, and quarry, and every substance which con- 
tributes to the structure of a man's coat, we should at once put 
out of existence most of the great motive powers that keep the 
world in action. We should produce a chasm — a great gulf, 
which human progress could never pass. Almost every clime 
has made its contribution to form the coat. A suitable soil, 
the product of the Divine skill, fed the sheep that gave the 
wool that made the coat. Coal, iron, lead, tin, zinc, and I 
know not how many other substances and agents, combined to 
form the garment. 

And so we may say of the cotton and linen garments 
3 



oO THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

which go to make up the remaining portion of his wardrobe. 
The materials were cultivated in lands on the other side of the 
globe, and could not serve their present purpose until they had 
been transferred here — not till the large merchantman or 
the steamer had been constructed out of materials that again 
taxed every field and forest and mine, and employed a great 
amount and variety of skill and labor for its construction and 
outfit. His shoes, also, were not fitted to his feet till the ma- 
terials of which they were made had passed through a great 
variety of operations, and a yet greater variety of materials 
were employed. 

And if we put into his pocket a watch, a knife and a pen- 
cil, we shall meet in his garb a still further representation of 
the exuberant provision which nature has made for the comfort 
of man. Every continent has contributed, and every substance 
ministers to his well-being. 

But he must be housed— -he must eat, sleep, move from 
place to place, and work. How many kinds of wood enter 
into the structure of his house ; how many metals and miner- 
als — common stone and marble, clay, sand, lime, hair ; glass, 
paint and cordage. And his furniture is composed of a still 
greater variety of materials. We should find no end in an at- 
tempt to trace out, and trace up to their origin, all the sub- 
stances used by the cabinetmaker, the upholsterer, the carpenter, 
the carpet-maker, and the various artificers of all the woollens 
and linens and cottons and silks ; of the china and glass and 
porcelain ; and of kitchen utensils, stoves, and all manner of 
implements, vessels and appurtenances, in and about his house, 
good and bad, clean and unclean. 

But his food levies, perhaps, a still more extensive contri- 



FOOD AND LOCOMOTION. 51 

bution on the productions of the whole world, than either his 
house or his apparel. Though each individual country furnishes 
to its respective population all the absolute necessities of sub- 
sistence, yet the comforts of the civilized man's table, and es- 
pecially his luxuries, are the product of every land. How many 
fields and grazing grounds supply his breadstufFs and meats. 
Seas and rivers yield him fish. Tropical lands supply tea, 
cofi'ee, sugar, sweetmeats and spices ; and temperate climates, 
a great variety of delicious fruits and vegetables. The forests 
afford him game ; the sea, salt ; and every land, something 
that ministers to the palate. 

Again, would we know what a variety of materials are re 
quisite to enable a man to move from place to place in a car- 
riage, railway car, or a steamship, we must first be able to 
analyze the structure of one of these locomotive conveyances, 
and to enumerate the number and variety of materials, metallic, 
animal and vegetable, which enter into the structure. And in 
like manner we might speak of the implements with which the 
man works, and the various devices by which he saves muscu- 
lar labor. 

Until we descend to particulars, we have but a very inade- 
([uate conception of the immense multiplicity of things which 
God has made, and of the immense number which we use in 
the common affairs of life. " Oh Lord, how manifold are thy 
works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is full 
of thy riches." 

We may here quote the glowing language of another.* 
" Wherever we turn our eyes in the world around us, we be- 

* Dr. Dick, in the " Philosophy of Keligion." 



52 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

hold innumerable instances of our Creator's beneficence. In 
order that the eye and the imagination may be gratified and 
charmed, he has spread over the surface of our terrestrial habi- 
tation an assemblage of the richest colors which beautify and 
adorn the landscape of the earth, and present to our view a 
picturesque and diversified scenery which is highly gratifying 
to the principle of novelty implanted in the human mind. On 
all sides we behold a rich variety of beauty and magnificence. 
Here spread the wide plains of fertile fields, adorned with 
fruits and verdure ; there the hills rise in gentle slopes, and 
the mountains rear their snowy tops to the clouds, distilling 
from their sides the brooks and rivers which enliven and fertil- 
ize the plains through which they flow. Here the lake stretches 
into a smooth expanse in the bosom of the mountains ; there 
the rivers meander through the forests and the flowery fields, di- 
versifying the rural scene, and distributing health and fertility 
in their train. Here we behold the rugged cliff ; there we are 
charm-ed with the verdure of the meadow, the enamel of flowers, 
the azure of the sky, the gay coloring of the morning and the 
evening clouds. In order that this scene of beauty and magnifi- 
cence might be rendered visible. He formed the element of 
light, without which the expanse of the Universe would be a 
boundless desert, and its beauties forever veiled from our sight. 
It opens to our view the mountains, the hills, the vales, the 
woods, the lawns, the flocks, the herds, the wonders of the 
mighty deep, and the radiant orbs of heaven. It paints a 
thousand different hues on the objects around us, and promotes 
a cheerful and extensive intercourse among all the inhabitants 
of the globe." 

A geographical survey of the earth introduces us at once 



THE BOUNDLESS EICHES OF NATURE. 53 

into the exhaustless storehouse of Nature's riches. We can 
never cease to admire the unbounded liberality of the Divine 
hand when employed to supply the wants of man through the 
varied resources which the earth is made to produce. The 
strangely varied surface of the earth which geography pre- 
sents ; diversified climates and soils ; the different elevations 
and depressions of land ; mines of every metal and mineral ; 
and, indeed, all the singularly varied productions of the land, 
and the sea, and the inhabitants of the air — all conduce to 
magnify the wisdom and skill of the wonderful Architect ; and 
to direct all eyes, and to raise all hearts to the great bountiful 
One who opens his hands and all the wants of all his creatures 
are liberally supplied. 

These thoughts are but the echo of the inspired utterances 
of the royal Psalmist. In the one hundred and fourth psalm, 
he celebrates the glorious attributes of Jehovah, as displayed in 
the creation of this globe, both land and water — the stocking 
the land and the sea, respectively, with a superabundance of 
living creatures — the provision made for their subsistence both 
as to food and water, and the arrangement made, by means of 
day and night, for the labor, refreshment and protection of 
man. " He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run 
among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field : 
the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of 
the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the 
branches. He watereth the hills from his chambers : the earth 
is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass 
to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man : that 
he may bring forth food out of the earth ; and wine that maketh 
glad the heart of man, and oil that maketh his face to shine, 



54 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. The trees of the 
Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he hath 
planted, where the birds make their nests. The hills are a ref- 
uge for the wild goats and the rocks for the conies." How 
strangely benevolent all these arrangements, by which the 
w^ants and conveniences of all his creatures are so timely and 
bountifully provided for. Who has not admired the provision 
made to supply animals of every grade and clime with fresh 
water ? The great reservoir is salt^ yet it sends forth sweet 
streams into every nook and corner of the earth. The Great 
Architect has perforated this ball in every conceivable direc- 
tion with water-courses, through which he sends to every door 
the needed fluid. The inhabitants of the wilds, the rovers in 
the desert, the tenants of the rocks, all receive in due time 
their supply of this indispensable beverage. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Elementary Particles of Things— Varieties Chemical— The same law of 
Yariety pervades the Atomic "World — " Ultimate Molecules," or Elementary 
Particles — The Particles composing a Eay of Light or a Drop of Water. 

" Measured on the vast scale of the universe, the globe we in- 
habit appears but an atom ; and yet^ within the compass of 
this atom, what an inexhaustible variety of objects is con- 
tained! what an endless diversity of phenomena! what won- 
derful changes are occurring in rapid and perpetual succession ! 
Throughout the whole series of terrestrial beings, what stud- 
ied arrangements, what preconcerted adaptations, what mul- 
tiplied evidences of intention, what signal proofs of beneficent 
design exist to attract our notice, to excite our curiosity, and to 
animate our inquiries ! " * We are amazed at the monuments 
of the divine power and wisdom which we behold in the bound- 
less firmament of the heavens. No human intellect can com- 
prehend such grandeur ; no imagination can measure it. Yet 
not the less wonderful are the manifestations of the same di- 
vine attributes, as seen displayed in the less magnificent and 
the more minute operations on our own planet. 

We have taken a hasty survey of our world as a whole, and 
as seen through the eyes of the geographer. We have seen 

* Bridgewater Treatise, by Peter Mark Roget. 



56 THE PALACE OF T2iE GREAT KING. 

into how many tens of thousands of shapes, and forms, and na- 
tures, matter has been moulded, so as to produce a countless 
number of objects, all fitted to gratify the taste, to please the 
eye, to minister to the appetite, and to meet the wants and ne- 
cessities of man. This will appear still more obvious, as we 
shall, in a subsequent chapter, consider more in detail the 
vegetable and animal kingdoms. 

But let us pause here for a few moments and humbly seek 
admittance into Nature's secret laboratory, and try to gain 
some little acquaintance at least with the primordial materials 
— the elementary particles of which all this singularly diver- 
sified world of beings is made. While the telescope has thrown 
open to our view illimitable fields of space before untraversed, 
all radiant with sparkling worlds, and beyond these, still unex- 
plored fields, of whose extent we can form no conception, 
the microscope, on the other hand, has brought within our 
range of vision '' the more diminutive objects of creation, and 
revealed to us many of the secrets of their structure and ar- 
rangement." But our concern at present is not with structures 
or arrangements, however inconceivably minute these may be. 
There is not a grain of sand, there is not an animalcule so 
small that it has not its component parts, and is made up of 
original materials. We are here conducted back a step be- 
yond any structure or organization of matter ; and here open 
to our view wonders more wonderful, if possible, than we get 
by any survey we are able to take of the vastness of the starry 
heavens. 

Philosophy teaches that '^ there exist worlds far removed 
from the cognizance of every human sense, however assisted by 
the utmost refinements of art ; worlds occupied by the elemen- 



MOLECULES I DIYISIBILITY. 57 

tary corpuscles of matter, composing, by their various con- 
figurations, systems upon systems, and comprising endless 
diversities of motions, of complicated changes, and of widely 
extended series of causes and effects, destined forever to remain 
invisible to human eyes and inscrutable to human science." 
All matter, whether it be moulded into a metal or a mineral, or 
whether it compose a vegetable nature, or the bone, muscle, 
blood-vessel or vein of a living thing, is composed of an infinite 
number of molecules. As an instance from the mineral king- 
dom. Dr. Thomson has shown that an ultimate molecule of lead 
cannot weigh more than the 3To,o-oo,Vo- 0,000 of a grain ; and the 
ultimate molecule of sulphur no more than the 2-,o t 5,0" o t,o o o,o- u '-> 
and that the size of a molecule of lead cannot exceed 

8'8"8",4 ■92","00"¥,0"0'0","00'0" ^^ ^ CUblC mcll. 

The vegetable kingdom presents us with examples of the 
extraordinary divisibility of matter quite as remarkable. But 
we pass by these that we may quote a paragraph to illustrate 
the same idea from the animal kingdom."^ 

"Animalcules have been discovered whose magnitude is such 
that a million of them does not exceed a grain of sand ; yet each of 
these creatures is composed of members as curiously organized as 
those of the largest species ; they have life and spontaneous motion, 
and are endowed with feeling and instinct. In the liquids in which 
they live, they are observed to move with astonishing speed and 
activity ; nor are their motions blind and fortuitous, but evidently 
governed by choice, and directed to an end. They use food and 
drink, from which they derive nutrition, and are therefore pro- 
vided with a digestive apparatus. They have great muscular power 
and are provided with limbs and muscles of strength and flexibility. 
They are susceptible of the same appetites, and obnoxious to the 
same passions. Must we not conclude that these creatures have 

* Dr. Wm. Front's " Bridgewater Treatise," pp. 23, 24. 
3* 



58 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

hearts, arteries, veins, muscles, sinews, tendons, nerves, circulating 
fluids, and all the concomitant apparatus of a living organized 
body ? And if so, how inconcewaMy minute must these parts be. 
If a globule of their blood bears the same proportion to their whole 
bulk as a globule of our blood bears to our magnitude, what power 
of calculation can give an adequate notion of its minuteness." 

But we are not at present concerned with the formations 
of things, however infinitesimal these may be, and however 
much, by their inimitable skill and strange variety they may 
enhance our admiration of the Great Architect. We are now 
concerned with the elementary particles out of which all things, 
even the minutest structure or organization, is formed. 

Though we shall find enough to excite our profoundest 
wonder and devoutest adoration when we shall attempt to 
enter the great storehouse of Nature, and contemplate the 
immense number and variety of objects which God has made, 
from the hugest globe that rolls through interminable space, to 
the minutest molecule that forms a grain of sand ; and our arith- 
metic shall fail in the attempt to enumerate even the manufac- 
tured articles which the eye, aided by the telescope on the one 
hand and the microscope on the other, is able to survey ; yet 
we shall not be the less amazed as we attempt to examine the 
raw material^ if I may so speak, out of which all these things 
are made. Here we find ourselves amidst worlds of wonders yet 
more incomprehensible. If we shall be able, in any degree, to 
look in upon the great universe of primordial particles (the 
atomic chaos of things), we may gain some more definite idea of 
those wonderful operations which first gave to matter its present 
endlessly varied forms ; and the no less wonderful operations 
which are constantly taking place in every particle of matter 



ELEMENTARY PARTICLES. 59 

about us. Such a view will introduce us into what Paley calls 
the " concealed and internal operations of the machine." 

We ask what is matter in its original form, in its elemen- 
tary principles or particles ? and whence and by what means 
all these endless forms and shapes, and all these endlessly 
varied natures and conditions in which we find matter at 
present ? 

We have referred to a globule of the blood which flows in 
the veins of one of those living atoms, a million of which sport 
in a drop of water. 'Now we know that blood is a substance — a 
compound substance — and that each of its component parts is in 
turn composed of an infinite number of " ultimate molecules," 
or elementary particles. We cannot conceive of the existence 
of an object so small as one of the myriads of original particles 
of a globule of human blood ; what then must be the size of one 
of the indefinite number of particles which form a globule of the 
blood of one of the animalcules referred to above, a "million of 
which are not larger than a grain of sand ; " or of one of those 
monads which have been brought to light by the microscopic 
researches of Professor Ehrenbergh. According to his compu- 
tation, a cubic line, which is about the bulk of a drop of water, 
contains 500,000,000. Each one of these he represents as 
endowed with organs of life, of motion and digestion — has 
muscles, veins, arteries, sinews, and nerves. We ask not what 
is the size of a globule of their blood, but of one of the im- 
mense number of particles of which that globule is composed. 

Light and heat are now conceded to be substances, every 
ray of which is composed of an infinite number of particles. 
And how minute indeed must be the particles of light, that, 
though they come from the sun with a velocity equal to 200,000 



60 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

miles in a second of time, yet, notwithstanding this tremendous 
velocity, they strike harmless on an object delicate as the 
human eye. Were not the particles almost infinitely small, 
the strongest eye could not endure the light for a moment. 
Had particles of light been made of such a size that a million 
should equal a small grain of sand, they would probably, with 
such a velocity, pierce the eye with the most excruciating pain. 
And not only so, but such rays would perforate the very crust 
of the earth, and tatter to atoms every living thing. And so 
subtle are the particles of this form of matter that it readily 
passes through certain solid substances, some of them the most 
solid. It passes through one of the densest bodies with perfect 
ease. And heat, so minute are its elementary particles, that 
it readily insinuates itself through the densest forms of matter, 
not excepting gold, acting on every separate particle of what- 
ever body it pervades, and expanding the whole. Heat is pos- 
sibly a compound substance, a union, as some affirm, of elec- 
tricity and magnetism. And what are electricity and mag- 
netism? If they are material, what can estimate the size of 
their elementary particles '? 

And if Newton's hypothesis of light be the true one, its 
composition exhibits an exquisitely ingenious variety of work- 
manship. According to this hypothesis, "the molecules of 
light may be regarded as little magnets^ revolving rapidly 
around their centres while they advance in their course, and 
thus presenting alternately their attractive and repulsive 
poles." That is, every elementary particle of light is a sort 
of infinitesimal miniature and representative of those great 
stellar bodies in the concave of the heavens that revolve about 
their axis, and at the same time move on in their respective 



WONDERFUL VELOCITY OF LIGHT. 61 

orbits with the most astonishing velocity ! Were our sun the 
07ily fountain of light for the universe^ we should still attempt 
in vain to form any conception of the infinite divisibility of 
matter, and tbe exquisitely beautiful workmanship implied in 
the idea above. But when we come to reflect that boundless 
space is thickly studded with these great light and heat-giving 
bodies — millions of fixed stars or suns ; and that every ray of 
light which emanates from each one of these immense bodies is 
composed of millions of normal atoms, each one of which is 
itself, as it were, a sun revolving about its axis, and at the 
same time moving on its course at the rate of 200,000 miles 
in a second of time, we find ourselves attempting to get an 
idea of the handiwork of God, which surpasses all description 
or conception. 

The reflection contained in the following paragraph is sufii- 
ciently apt, and the remarks and assertions respecting the ele- 
mentary particles of light are, at least, sufficiently wonderful, 
to be appended to what has just been said. The theory seems 
not to difler essentially from that of Newton ; but the theory is 
supposed to be verified, in the manner which exceeds all human 
conception ; and, to the untaught in the wonders and mysteries 
of creative wisdom and skill, it transcends all human credibility. 
'' What mere assertion will make any one believe that in 
one second of time, in one beat of the pendulum of a clock, a 
ray of light travels over 192,000 miles, and would therefore 
perform the tour of the world in about the same time that it 
requires to wink with our eyelids, and in much less than a 
swift runner occupies in taking a single stride ? What mortal 
can be made to believe without demonstration that the sun is 
almost a million times larger than the earth ? and that, al- 



62 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

tliough so remote from us that a cannon-ball shot directly 
towards it, and maintaining its full speed, would be twenty 
years in reaching it, yet it affects the earth by its attraction 
in an inappreciable instant of time "? Who would not ask for 
demonstration, when told that a gnat's wing, in its ordinary 
flight, beats many hundred times in a second ; or that there 
exist animated and regularly organized beings, many thousands 
of whose bodies, laid close together, would not extend an inch *? 
But what are these to the astonishing truths which modern op- 
tical inquiries have disclosed, which teach us that every point 
of a medium through which a ray of light passes, is affected 
with a succession of periodical movements, regularly recurring 
at equal intervals, no less than ^ve hundred millions of mil- 
lions of times in a single second ! That it is by such move- 
ments communicated to the nerves of our eyes that we see ; — 
nay more, that it is the difference in the frequency of their re- 
currence which affects us with the sense of the diversity of 
color. That, for instance, in acquiring the sensation of red 
ness, our eyes are aff'ected four hundred and eighty-two mil- 
lions of millions of times ; of yellowness, ^ve hundred and forty- 
two millions of millions of times ; and of violet, seven hundred 
and seven millions of millions of times per second! Do not 
such things sound more like the ravings of madmen than the 
sober conclusions of people in their waking senses ? , They 
are, nevertheless, conclusions to which any one may most cer- 
tainly arrive, who will only be at the trouble of examining the 
chain of reasoning by which they have been obtained." 

A drop of water appears a very simple thing ; yet the gentle- 
men of the microscope discover it to be made up of twenty-six 
millions of primary particles, among which play an incredible 



VAPOE, SNOW, AND HAIL. 63 

number of animalculse. The snow-flake appears as an object 
scarcely less simple. The casual observer is satisfied when 
told that this snow-flake is congealed or crystallized particles 
of water in the vapor state. But the philosopher sees in it a 
world of interest beyond this. He sees the water indeed beau- 
tifully crystallized ; but when he comes to apply a magnifying 
power, he lays open to his vision a singular display of beauty 
and variety. The particles assume every conceivable form. 

The vapor, which when frozen, produced the snow, is water 
whose particles are separated and diflused by heat. A flake 
of snow may therefore be regarded as a collection of these dif- 
fused particles of water frozen and crystallized : each particle 
forming a distinct crystal, and the several crystals displaying 
as many distinct and beautiful varieties. 

Captain Scoresby, who gave much attention to this subject, 
has given a delineation of a great number of these crystals. 
While each is exquisitely beautiful, no two are alike. Or if 
the water of the atmosphere be condensed into drops, and in 
its descent congeals and falls in the shape of hail, Sj somewhat 
similar phenomenon is observed. These hail-stones assume an 
endless variety of forms — endless, as far as human observation 
extends. Some are round, others angular, or pyramidal, or 
flat ; sometimes they are stellated with radii ; and it is yet to 
be discovered if there be two hail-stones of precisely the same 
size or shape. 

But we would pass from the great chaotic mass of un- 
wrought material to the ingenious working-up of this material 
by the plastic hand of Nature. But before we would quit Na- 
ture's great storehouse and pass on to Nature's great workshop, 
we would raise a single suggestive inquiry. It relates to the 



64 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

size and form of the primordial particles of which all existing 
things are made. Are they all of the same uniform size and 
form, as some have affirmed ; or does not this vast and limit- 
less primordial universe of which we have been speaking, pre- 
sent the same wonderful diversity of dimensions and shapes as 
the microscopic or the telescopic universe of made objects does, 
or as does the visible world about us % 

To assume that the same law of variety does not pervade the 
whole atomic world, is to presume that the original, and the 
most wonderful, and most numerous portion of God's works 
is not in analogy with all his other works with which we are 
acquainted; for, in all things which fall within unassisted 
human vision, and as far as telescopic or microscopic vision ex- 
tends, there is no exception. Variety is there the order of 
creation. And we are probably safe in the conjecture that if 
microscopic vision shall ever be able to examine the forms and 
dimensions of the primary particles of things, these will be 
found to be subjected to the same general law of variety. The 
idea is perfectly incomprehensible, yet incomprehensible only 
because we cannot comprehend infinity. We readily admit 
the idea that infinite skill and power can create objects in infi- 
nite number and variety, though we cannot comprehend how 
much is included in the term infinite variety. So that how- 
ever beyond human conception it may be, yet it may neverthe- 
less be true that of all the countless number of particles that 

ft 
compose the universe, no iioo are alike. However great this num- 
ber may be, it is something less than infinite. If infinite variety 
be possible, certainly the variety in question is at least as pos- 
sible. We can form no definite conception how the particles 
composing a drop of water should contain twenty-six million 



INFINITE DIVISIBILITY. 65 

varieties, and that there should exist in that drop five hundred 
millions of monads, containing as many more distinct varieties. 
And more difficult is it to conceive that each of the sixty-two 
millions five hundred thousand of teeth that lock together the 
five millions of fibres which compose the crystalline lens, (the 
hard central part of a codfish's eye,) should be formed of an in- 
definite number of molecules ; and that these should constitute 
so many varieties, that no two should be alike. And yet 
more difficult is it to comprehend how no two particles of light, 
which emanate from the sun, and which in all past time have, 
or in all future time shall, emanate from our sun, and not only 
from our sun, but from all the suns that shine in the universe, 
are alike. This is a step further in advance towards infinity 
than we are able to go ; yet our surmise here has to plead for 
itself the analogy of all we do know of the Divine workman- 
ship. 

The foregoing illustrations find confirmation in the philoso- 
pher's well-known doctrine of '' Infinite Divisibility." Every 
substance is doubtless divisible (in theory) till we arrive at the 
primordial particles of which it is composed. This is to us at 
least, infinite. The following paragraphs from the " Scientific 
American " give some just idea of the subject we are consider- 
ing : 

" Divisibility is a property possessed by all bodies, and means 
their capability to be separated into parts. 

'' It was formerly a question among philosophers whether matter 
was capable of being divided ad ivfinitiim^ or whether there was a 
limit beyond which matter could not be divided. The question is 
incapable of direct solution, and fortunately science does not require 
that it should be known ; but the extent to which subdivision has 
been carried in the arts is prodigious. In the gilding of buttons, 
five grains of gold, which is applied as an amalgam with mercury, is 



66 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

allowed to a gross ; so that the coating left must not be more than 
the 110,000th part of an inch in thickness. If a piece of ivory or 
\;\^hite satin be immersed in a solution of nitro -muriate of gold, and 
exposed to a current of nitrogen gas, it will be covered with a sur- 
face of gold not exceeding the ten-millionth part of an inch in thiek- 
ness. 

^' A single grain of blue vitriol will give an azure tint to five gal- 
lons of water. In this case, the copper must be attenuated ten mil- 
lion times, and yet there is sufficient in each drop of water to give 
it color. Odors are capable of still further diffusion ; a single grain 
of musk has been known to scent a room for twenty years. 

'' Animal matter, likewise, exhibits many instances of wonderful 
subdivision. The milt of a codfish, when it begins to putrefy, has 
been estimated to contain a billion of perfect insects, so that thou- 
sands of these little lives could be lifted on the point of a needle. 
One of the infusorial animalculae found in duck-weed is ten million 
times smaller than a hemp seed ; and another, discovered in ditch 
water, appears in the field of a microscope a mere atom, endowed 
with sentient life, and millions of them play, like sunbeams, in a single 
drop of liquid." 

" Among the curiosities shown at Alnwick Castle, in England, 
is a vase, taken from an Egyptian catacomb. It is full of a mixture 
of gum, resins, &c., which give forth an agreeable odor to the pres- 
ent day, although probably fully 3,000 years old ! " 

But enough of this great chaos of atoms — of this endlessly 
multitudinous universe of molecules. We now enter the great 
workshop and try to catch a glimpse of how things are made, 
as well as out of what they are made. 

The idea which has been advanced is, in the language of 
Dr. John Pye Smith, that " the original act of creation provided 
the primordial particles, by a combination of which all material 
and all organized matters have been formed." These particles, 
then, mingled together in one great chaotic mass — a great dead 
globular lump, empty and waste, " without form and void " — 
were, at the period when Moses commences his history, endowed 



HOW GOD CEEATED ALL THINGS. 67 

with certain " repellant and adhesive forces," perhaps assisted 
by, if not composed of electricity and magnetism, which in their 
singular action worked out all the formations of things as we 
see them. We call these forces, with which every particle of 
primeval matter is endowed, and which seem to act on every 
particle separately, " the laws of nature." Through the mighty 
agency of these forces — forces so quiet in their operation, and 
so invisible to the eye of art or science, that we know of them 
only by their agency — He that said " Let there be light, and 
there was light," holds at ready command every separate parti- 
cle of matter in the universe. 

We may at least suggest the inquiry whether, when God 
said " Let there be light," this was not the fiat which sent on 
their mission the potent energies of light and heat (including 
electricity and magnetism) in the first great moulding process 
among the heretofore chaotic elements of nature. The great 
forming and vivifying agency was now set in motion, and 
henceforward matter is seen to assume endlessly varied forms. 
And as these mysterious forces (the laws of nature) are kept 
in action under the guidance of Omniscient benevolence, they 
produce all those endless changes, forms, varieties, natures and 
conditions, and all the multiplicity of objects which constitute 
the entire universe of matter, and determine the condition of 
the whole world of life. 

The Creator and constant controller of all things, can have 
occasion to form nothing so subtle or minute, nothing so huge 
or ponderous which he cannot form out of such material. Did 
he foresee that the comfort and future progress of his creature 
man would require an ocean here and a river there ; here a 
bay, or a creek, or a refreshing stream, and there a mountain. 



68 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

a valley or a meadow, he had only so to control these forces at 
his command, as to produce the desired end, and it was done. 
When the vivifying and all-adjusting Spirit moved on the face 
of the chaotic mass ; when the Creator took in hand first to fit 
up this globe of ours for the habitation of man, or to readjust 
its surface at the time of the deluge, he made just such an al- 
lotment of particles as was needful to form the waters and the 
dry land in due proportions, and ordered just such a retreat of 
the waters after the flood, and such a subsidence of solid mat- 
ter — such elevations and depressions of the land as should se- 
cure the location of every river, lake, sea or streamlet in pre- 
cisely the right place. And so in the formation of every con- 
ceivable variety of soil, of every meadow, forest and mine — of 
every metal or mineral, and of every living thing. It was 
Omniscient forethought that brought together just the right 
, particles to form in its respective place the diamond, the silver, 
or the gold ; the iron, the coal or the precious stone ; or to 
give being to the monster of the deep, or to the tiniest mite 
that lives. 

One adjustment of particles produces a hard body, another 
a soft, or a porous, or an elastic body ; one, a ductile, another, 
a malleable body. One arrangement produces a body which 
will freely transmit the rays of light, as glass ; another con- 
struction produces a translucent body which transmits rays but 
imperfectly. An ingenious composition of particles in one body 
reflects only the red rays of light, and consequently the body 
appears red. Others reflect only the hlue^ or the green ^ or the 
violet rays, and appear of a corresponding color. Some reflect 
all the rays, and are consequently white ; others reflect no 
rays, and are black. We here discover the causes of all the 



COLOES : QUANTITIES AND QUALITIES. 69 

varied colors and tints of color which please the eye and beau- 
tify the landscape ; and of all the fragrant odors by which we 
are regaled, and all the s^veet flowers and delicious fruits which 
we enjoy, and the endless varieties of food which the earth 
yields us— and of all different natures and varieties of every 
created thing. All is the result of that Omniscient forethought 
and exhaustless benevolence which orders precisely such a col- 
lection of every individual particle as is needful to produce 
such a result. Whence the pure white of the lily, the blush 
of the ros6, or the tinge of the apple ? Whence the gold, the 
diamond, the plumage of the peacock, or the gilding of the in- 
sect's wing ? It is the peculiar composition of those substances 
which makes them capable of reflecting the right sort of rays to 
produce these colors. Not the minutest particle took its place 
in that rose-leaf, or in that insect's wing, by accident. 

But we would present the thought in one other aspect. 
We refer to the regard had in the moulding of things into 
their destined forms, to quantities and qualities, A due ad- 
justment of these to each other, we at once perceive is of es- 
sential importance ; and such an adjustment as actually exists, 
could have been the result of nothing short of Infinite Wisdom. 
In all the countless multitude of things which God has made, 
there is found to be the most exact regard had to the quan- 
tities and qualities of matter which enter into each. If these 
were varied from what they are in the least possible degree, 
the thing made would be another thing from what it is. What 
is a good now would be an evil. How different, and indeed 
how disastrous, if the component parts of water, or of air, had 
been different from what they are ? 

Had there been in air a greater proportion of oxygen (the 



70 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

VGTj principle of flame), the atmosphere might ignite, and the 
whole earth be encircled in a conflagration ; or were the oxygen 
of the air to be diminished in any considerable degree, it would 
not be capable of supporting life or flame at all ; and not only 
so, but the nitrogen of the atmosphere, if increased above what 
it is, would be altogether destructive to life ; and in like man- 
ner in relation to water. If the ingredients were not com- 
pounded in precisely the quantities they are, this element 
would subserve none of its present purposes. It would not be 
water. By reducing the quantity of oxygen, it would become 
inflammable ; and by increasing its hydrogen, if nothing more 
disastrous, its specific gravity would become such as to make it 
of no use in navigation, and probably as useless for any other 
practical purpose. Similar remarks might be made in respect 
to any, or all created things ; but for the nicest calculation in 
respect to the exact number and character of primordial parti- 
cles that enter into the composition of each, it would not be 
what it is, but something else. 

And there is a like dependence on the quality/. Suppose 
the familiar substances referred to, air and water, were to 
change as to their component natures, what calamities would 
follow ? Were, for example, the important fluid, water, to be- 
come sour or sweet, heavier or lighter, or any thing but what 
it is ; or were the air of the atmosphere to acquire odor or 
color, or to become opaque : by either of such changes, slight 
as they appear, the whole of the present economy of nature 
would be changed. Again, " if the qualities of the acid exist- 
ing in the common salt of the ocean were to become so modi- 
fied as to quit the alkali with which it is at present asso- 
ciated, and to combine with the limestone composing our rocks, 



nature's great laboeatoey. ^1 

while the carbonic acid, thus set free, was diffused through the 
atmosphere : in such a case a large part of the solid crust of 
our globe would rapidly disappear and become dissolved in the 
waters of the ocean, which would thus be totally unfitted for 
their present purposes, while the liberated carbonic acid would 
instantly prove fatal to animal life." Such are but specimens 
of the disastrous results from changes apparently the most 
trifling ; and we can scarcely conceive of any change which 
would not produce similar results. Our very useful article 
called common salt, owes its utility and its existence to the 
fact of its being a composition of two ingredients in precisely 
the proportions in which we find them. The excess of the one 
over the other would entirely change it, and make it any thing 
but common salt. Were water either of a greater or less spe- 
cific gravity, it would be of no use in navigation. If water were 
a lighter substance, vessels would not float; if heavier, no 
power of wind or steam would propel them through it. In like 
manner, marble, coal, iron, gold, silver would instantly lose 
their identity and cease to be of service, if the character of 
their structure were changed. 

We can scarcely contemplate the God of Nature in a more 
interesting light than when we regard him as the original 
Creator of all matter and as the great Architect. He first, out 
of nothing, called into being the material — not in masses or 
tangible forms as we now see them, but infinitesimal molecules 
or primordial particles — monads infinitely small and infinitely 
numerous, and probably of infinite variety — and out of these 
he made an endless variety of objects, mineral, vegetable, and 
animal ; and these are endowed with natures and properties, 
and are adapted to uses and modes of existence and life the 



72 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

most diverse conceivable. In the view we have now been tak- 
ing, we approach the wonderful Architect in the great labora- 
tory of Nature's Temple, and as we contemplate his incompre- 
hensible skill, wisdom, and power in his primordial creations, 
and then witness the exuberantly varied and seemingly opposite 
results which the plastic Hand produces, by the compounding 
and organizing into every conceivable shape and size what has 
been significantly termed the "ultimate molecules" of the 
original creation, we are overwhelmed at the idea which it 
gives us of the capabilities of the eternal Godhead. We can 
only praise, and adore, and wonder, but we cannot compre- 
hend. 

The view we have been taking of the nature and structure 
of the material creation, suggests a reflection as to the forma- 
tion and development of the new spiritual creation or the 
spiritual life. Is the origin of the new life in the soul, its 
growth and maturity, and final perfection ; is it absolutely, 
on the part of the Omnipotent Spirit, a new and positive 
creation, or is it a bringing together and concentrating, and 
giving life to moral influences and impressions which before ex- 
isted ? — the germination of seed previously sown, the quicken- 
ing into life of agencies and influencies before existing? While 
this detracts nothing from the power and necessity of the 
quickening Spirit, it is analogous to the working of the same 
creating and all quickening Spirit in the creation of the natural 
world. But not to insist on this idea, the analogy appears 
more obvious as we contemplate the growth and maturity of 
Christian character, and the fitness for citizenship in heaven. 
Here the whole spiritual structure is made up of little things. 
The little events of every-day life, the little impressions and 



THE PEIMORDIAL ELEMENTS OF CHARACTEE. 73 

influences which act on the mind or heart ; the numberless little 
opportunities and circumstances for the benefit of others or for 
self-improvement, or for self-discipline, are, when collected, 
combined and moulded by the plastic hand of the life-giving 
Spirit, the primordial elements which make up the sum total 
of a man's character, and determine his eternal destiny. 
Death works no change in character; nor is the future destiny 
of the soul determined by a few great leading religious or irre- 
ligious acts, but by the whole web of life — which web is made 
up of ten thousand little shreds of every-day character. 
4 



CHAPTER V. 

The Vegetable Kingdom : No two Trees, Plants, Shrubs alike — No two Leaves, 
Flowers, Seeds, or Fruits. — The Natures, Qualities, and Uses, how different. — 
The Abundance of Vegetable Productions.— All fornaed of a few Elementary 
Substances. 

It would seem but an obvious inference from what has been 
already said that God never made two objects alike. For 
whether it be things earthly or heavenly, or things under the 
earth — whether we ascend to the boundless regions of the 
telescopic universe, or descend to the innumerable millions of 
living things and of primordial molecules, which form the no 
less wonderful microscopic universe, we find no two objects 
alike. 

We turn to the vegetable kingdom, and what endless 
varieties meet us here. How many kinds of trees, shrubs, 
plants, vines ! The earth is constantly yielding her endlessly 
varied productions. What a variety of foliage, flowers, and 
fruits regale the eye with their varied beauties, and gratify the 
taste. How many kinds of grasses and vegetables all varie- 
gate the same little spot of ground, and all contributing to 
the subsistence, the health, and luxury of a correspondingly 
diversified family of living creatures. Not less than 100,000 
species of plants and vegetable productions are enumerated by 
naturalists ; including individuals or real varieties amounting 
to many millions. And then if we admit into the account the 



COMPOSITION OF PLANTS. 76 

fact that each of these individual varieties contains its unknown 
number of varieties, the aggregate will be inconceivable. 

We take for an example a single apple-tree, which is but one 
of the varieties named. No two apple-trees are alike. There 
are consequently as many varieties of this species of tree as 
lis there are individual trees. And not only so, but there are 
no two leaves, or buds, or blossoms, or fruits, or seeds of an 
individual tree that are alike. Our arithmetic would seem to 
falter before we should arrive at the number of varieties which 
grow out of a single species of plants ; and much less can we 
form any just conception of the number of actual varieties 
which result from the 100,000 species of vegetable productions. 
If we can form no definite conception of the number of 
varieties which range under one species, but find ourselves lost 
in the calculation in what to us is infinity^ then we can only 
set down the whole grand aggregate of all the vegetable 
varieties at 100,000 infinities. 

But we have no need to generalize or deal in incompre- 
hensibles. We may come to matters of every-day observation. 
It will add interest to our contemplations of the subject before 
us, if we bear in mind while contemplating it, that all plants, 
all vegetable organizations, are compositions of nearly the same 
component substances ; and these are very few and very simple. 
All the endless varieties which exist are produced by changes, 
apparently slight, in the amount and arrangement of the 
original particles. The principal and almost the only in- 
gredients which enter into the composition of all the vast mul- 
tiplicity of vegetable productions which cover the earth, are 
oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. All plants owe "their peculiar 
character essentially to carbon, and their endless varieties to 



76 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

the differences in its quantity, and to the modifying influence 
of the hydrogen and oxygen with which it is associated." The 
gnarled oak — the hardest wood or the rankest plant that 
grows, is formed of essentially the same materials as the most 
delicate flower that blossoms. The difference is in the infinite 
skill and taste employed in the workmanship of the two. One 
collocation of particles has formed the giant tree ; another, the 
modest violet, or the down on the most minute and delicate 
flower. 

It is quite impossible for us to conceive how, simply by a 
little change of arrangement, and a little variation in the 
amount and proportions of materials, such an endless multitude 
of objects, and such a countless variety, can be produced — 
objects, though all composed of the same three or four simple 
substances, yet so dififer in appearance and composition as to 
seem to have little or nothing in common. 

We have no need to go into any nice physiological ex- 
amination of the vegetable world. Were we to attempt to 
search out all the various compositions, natures, properties, 
functions, and uses of plants, we should almost at the outset 
find ourselves overwhelmed in infinitude. We could not num- 
ber one of a thousand of the varieties which would press upon 
us. The most superficial view — a glance of the eye or the 
use of the taste or the touch — will verify the remark. You 
open your eyes on a landscape, and what variety meets you 
simply in the external forms of things — in size, shape, and 
color. We select the single property of color. We can 
scarcely meet a more beautiful illustration of our subject. The 
prevailing color of the whole landscape is green. But how 
many shades of green do you at once discover ? You begin to 



VARIETIES IN THE LANDSCAPE. 77 

compare the green of one species of tree with that of another ; 
of one shrub, or vine, or creeping plant with another. You fix 
on a grass plot and say it is all green ; or you contemplate the 
leaves of a single tree, and declare that each leaf is surely of 
the same shade of green ; and equally positive are you that 
every spire of the same species of grass on the same little plot 
is the same green ; yet as you examine a little more minutely, 
you begin to doubt the perfect identity of color even here ; and 
as you bring a glass to the aid of your vision, you soon discover 
that the color of no two leaves of the same tree, and no two 
spires of grass on the same patch is precisely the same ; and 
we know that there are not two of the same form. The same 
remark would doubtless be found true of any other color. You 
would find no end to your attempt to enumerate all the dif- 
ferent shades of red, or black, or yellow, or orange, or violet, 
as they are found blended in the same scene. It is quite 
possible that you would discover as many varieties of color as 
there were number of objects contemplated. 

AiM the taste and touch may be found to detect another 
series of varieties in the same landscape, scarcely less limited. 
Select either of the three qualities expressed by the terms 
sweet, sour, bitter, and apply the taste, and you will detect 
every conceivable variety of the quality in question, if not a 
different variety in every leaf of the same tree, (which is not 
impossible if the taste were sufficiently delicate to discrimi- 
nate;) yet every different species of plant will offer a different 
degree of sweetness, acidity, or bitterness. 

Nothing sooner arrests the attention of the observer than the 
abundance of vegetable productions — the exuberant provision, 
in every conceivable variety, which God has made to supply 



78 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KLN'G. 

every possible want of man or beast. The whole face of the 
earth, and almost every object which belongs to the earth, is 
strangely instinct with vegetable life. And most of this vege- 
tation is spontaneous. Cultivated or uncultivated, sown or 
not sown, the mountains and the prairies, the hills and the 
valleys, and every crevice, nook and corner, will be found 
covered with verdure. And not only where there is a soil will 
there be vegetation, but the rock, the bark of the tree, the rail 
of the fence, and the roof and sides of the old building, if un- 
disturbed by friction, will put forth their verdant crop. And 
not only do the moss, the fungi, and the vegetable mould find 
place and nutriment on the rock or on the wood, but some 
species of plants vegetate on the surface of the water, and 
others on the surface of the siiovj, and others, again, on the 
bodies of some kinds of animals. The red snow, which is some- 
times met in the arctic regions, is found on examination to be 
not snow of a crimson color, but Nature, true to her own law, 
" be fruitful and multiply," produces, under circumstances so 
hopeless, a minute and singular vegetation, causing it to take 
root, v/ithout soil or genial sunshine, and to derive its nourish- 
ment from the cold surface of the snow ; and what is yet more 
remarkable, brick walls, tiled roofs, and even glass, when not 
kept constantly clean, afford, if not a soil, a surface for the 
growth of vegetation. The first plants that gain a footing on 
these surfaces usually look like a green or yellow powder. 
These in time decay, forming a little soil, on which others of a 
little less diminutive growth take root and find nutriment; 
and so one generation succeeds another till a sufficient portion 
of soil has accumulated to afford life and growth to more per- 



THE MONARCH OF THE FOEEST. 79 

feet plants. And^, at length, if the surface be large enough, 
shrubs and trees will succeed to the places of their diminutive 
progenitors. 

Placing under your microscope a piece of vegetable mouldy 
you behold a forest of beautiful trees, every plant of which is 
several hundreds of times smaller than a fine needle. We may 
assume that one of these minim trees, the tallest branch of 
which does not tower high enough to overlook the finest silken 
thread, stands at the lowest extreme of vegetable organiza- 
tion. From this point we ascend through every imaginable 
grade of vegetable life, from plant, shrub, flower and tree, of 
every possible form, size and color, to the sturdy oak, the 
princely pine, and the goodly cedar ; and thence again through 
less numerous but more noble races to the august monarch of 
the great vegetable empire. In most imposing contrast to our 
little tree of mould, sits, like a monarch of oriental magnifi- 
cence and slothful ease, the majestic banyan tree. 

This noble tree, whose broad and wide-spread top is beau- 
tifully interlaced with a thousand branches, and roofed with a 
thick and heavy foliage, and laden with fruit that serves as food 
for various tribes of animals, rests upon one main trunk of great 
size, while its broad branches are supported by a great num- 
ber of lesser trunks : some of the latter being as large as com- 
mon forest trees. The whole covers some acres of ground, and 
an army of seven thousand men have been known to encamp 
under it. One of these trees, on the banks of the Narbuddy 
Eiver, is said to inclose a surface of two thousand feet in cir- 
cumference when measured round its principal branches. The 
large trunks of this tree are three hundred and fifty, while the 



80 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

smaller ones exceed three thousand. This is Nature's noblest 
specimen of workmanship in the vegetable kingdom.* 

But we were speaking of the prodigality of Xature in the 
profuseness of her productions. Production is her law ; and in 
obedience to this law (if not an attempt to overstep it) we meet 
a tendency in vegetable life to extend itself, which has not left 
uninvaded the domains even of animal life. Some species of 
plants, as I intimated, find a foothold on the bodies of animals, 
and derive their nourishment from the same. They have been 
found, in the West Indies, vegetating on the bodies of living 
wasps. This was formerly believed to be a fact only in refer- 
ence to the bodies of dead animals. It is now admitted 
that several kinds of plants of the mushroom species, vegetate 
on the bodies of living insects — and not on the wasp alone, 
but on the sphynx and the May-bug. And other kinds of 
plants have been known to vegetate in the stomachs of living 

* The trunks of the banyan tree are matters of much curiosity. 
The main trunk occupies the position and serves the purpose of the trunk 
of any tree. And when the tree is young and small it is the only trunk. 
But as the branches begin to extend and need a support they let down 
little strings like roots, which continue to descend till they reach the 
ground. There they take root, grow with the growth of the branch they 
are to support, and at length become a collateral trunk. In like manner 
every principal branch lets down its support — and each branch, as it ex- 
tends and requires it, supplies itself with a supporting trunk. 

Around the imperial banyan, the pride of the luxuriant East, we may 
range the stately pine, the noble oak, the teak, the maple, the walnut, 
and a liberal variety of flower and fruit-bearing trees, all generously con- 
tributing to the use and luxury of man; some for ornament,. some for 
food or fuel, and all for purposes which enter substantially into the great 
business of human progress. 



SOURCES OF VARIETY. 81 

animals. An instance of this kind was singularly illustrated 
some years ago in the case of a codfish. There were found in 
its stomach three gneiss pebbles, on each of which was found 
growing a plant of the fucus kind, of a deep green, and nearly 
two feet long ; on another, a plant one-third as long was grow- 
ing ; and another of three inches in length. 

Though we can make no definite estimate of the actual 
number of real varieties in the vegetable kingdom, we may 
adopt a mode of illustration not the less pleasing and much 
more satisfactory. We may contemplate the diversified charac- 
ter of the Divine workmanship in its relation to the conven- 
ience and comfort of man. We shall here see the whole ar- 
rangement to be fraught with Heaven's beneficence. 

Next after the singular profusion which everywhere 
abounds, the manner in which such rich profusions are made 
to meet the wants and wishes of man, attracts attention. 

Every season produces a peculiar variety — so does latitude, 
or elevation above the sea. The hill and the valley, the dry 
land and the marsh, the sandy and the clayey soil, each gives 
life and growth to a vegetation peculiar to itself. Or the lati- 
tude and elevation may remain the same, yet a difference of 
soil will produce a different vegetation. It is interesting to 
follow up the vegetable products of the season. From the 
early spring to late autumn, what a delightful succession and 
variety — we will say first of flowers ! We should impose on 
ourselves a task if we were to attempt simply to enumerate but 
the various species which appear in beautiful succession, week 
after week, during the season, and in a single locality. From 
the first welcome of the dear little violet to the blushing adieu 

of the last rose or dahliah, we are never left a day or an hour with- 
4* 



82 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

out these delightful summer visitors. And not only have we 
occasion to admire in what beautiful variety one generation af- 
ter another joyfully passes before us, but when we stop to con- 
template individual varieties we find we had not numbered one 
of a thousand. We look upon a bed of carnations or violets 
-and we count it as one variety; but as we begin to examine 
and compare, we find no two individual blossoms alike ; and 
we soon make the discovery that there are as many varieties 
as there are individual flowers. Or we look in upon the great 
and beautiful family of roses, and we not only meet scores of 
varieties, but every individual of the same variety differs from 
his fellow. We go into the fruit orchard when in full blossom, 
and admire a scene so beautifully variegated by the blossoms 
of the apple, the pear, the peach, the cherry, the plum ; but we 
no sooner begin to discriminate than we discover that each 
individual apple, or peach or plum-tree presents its own pecu- 
liar beauties ; and when we come to apply a yet nicer discrim- 
ination, we are still more surprised to find that no two^of the 
ten thousand blossoms on the same tree are alike. This mul- 
tiplies varieties beyond all conception. 

But we stop not here. Though not one blossom in ten, and 
often not one in a hundred or a thousand, produce seed or fruit, 
but are merely the lovely expression of the Divine Goodness in 
adorning the fields and groves, and perfuming the air for the 
happiness of man, yet there follows a corresponding succession 
and variety of seeds and fruits. Iii our temperate climate, from 
the first welcome of the delicious strawberry to the final exit of 
the late pear and the frost-peach, we have a pleasant and con- 
tinuous succession of summer fruits. Strawberries, cherries, 
raspberries, harvest pears and apples, currants, gooseberries, 



A PORTEAITURE OF THE DIYINE MIND. 83 

plums, and a great variety of melons, and the whole series of 
summer fruits, supply our tables in their season ; and then fol- 
low, during the autumn and winter, a no less rich, and a yet 
more permanent supply of apples. Or if we extend our views 
within the tropics, a new world of floral beauty and variety, 
and new and yet more profuse supplies of fruits, regale the 
taste. Every country, every section, according to its latitude 
or height, has its own peculiar flowers and fruits. 

And if what was asserted of flowers be true (as it undoubt- 
edly is) of fruits and seeds, then we may expect to find no two 
apples, or peaches, or cherries on the same tree alike ; and we 
again have varieties which no man can number. 

" The vegetable kingdom," says the author of the " Sacred 
History," "expands everywhere before us an immense por- 
traiture of the Divine Mind, in its contriving skill, profuse 
imagination, conceiving genius and exquisite tastes; as well 
as its interesting qualities of the most gracious benignity and 
the most benevolent munificence." We cannot too profoundly 
admire "that exuberance of imagination and taste, and the 
sense of eloquence and beauty," which are displayed by the 
Maker in forming and diversifying the vegetable world. All 
these wondrously strange diversities of organization are " en- 
tirely the creation of his choice — the inventions of his rich and 
beautiful fancy. Their attractive shapes and quantities, and 
the abundant gratifications and important uses which we and 
our fellow-animals derive from them, explicitly show that 
kindness as well as goodness actuated his mind when he pro- 
jected and made them. They have been all individually de- 
signed: and special thought must have been employed' on 
each ; both in fixing their specific differences of form and 



84 THE PAT.ACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

products, and in perceiving what particular combinations and 
variations of arrangement would effect in every one its ap- 
pointed end and use." 

But tlie Divine Goodness is not exhausted when He has 
supplied man with a choice variety of luxuries. What has 
been said of flowers and fruits, may apply with equal truth to 
Nature's varied supplies of grains, vegetables, nuts, spices, aro- 
matics and narcotics; some of which are produced in nearly all 
countries, and others, the products of their respective regions, 
according to their distance from the equator or their elevation 
above the sea. Not only are man's wants liberally supplied 
and a never-failing provision made for his domestic animals, 
and for the wild tenants of the forest and all the winged tribes 
of the limitless domains of the air, but his table may be spread 
with a luxurious variety. Every demand of necessity would 
have been heeded if but one kind of grain, and but one vegeta- 
ble had been provided for him. But, instead of this, his 
Heavenly Parent has been at the utmost pains to provide for 
him every variety which even taste can crave, and pleasantly 
to season the whole with spices and salt — and withal to perfume 
the air about him that he may be happy and gratified in all his 
lawful desires. 

And not only has the Great Benefactor provided man food 
in such varied abundance, and provided for his luxuries — 
" wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his 
face to shine " — but he has been in like manner bountiful, in 
the provision made in vegetable organizations, for his clothing, 
for his dwelling, and for the various purposes of every day life. 
The'fibre of one plant supplies his linen, that of another, his 



NEW SUBSTANCES. 85 

cordage.* One tree produces a beautiful fibrous substance, 
which, when spun and woven into a great variety of fabrics, 
serves a thousand purposes in the domestic economy; while 
from another exudes a gum, which, when melted and prepared, 
furnishes us shoes to protect our feet from the wet and cold ; and 
serves many very important purposes in the arts of life. Other 
trees yield pitch, resin, gums ; some for medicines, some for 
luxury, or suited to be used in the arts. From one tree exudes 
a healing balsam ; from another a saccharine juice called sap, 
which is boiled down to a palatable sugar. The cow-tree of 
South America yields a substance, when the tree is gashed, 
which resembles and which is used for milk. The juice of one 
plant produces indigo, that of another, sugar ; and others yield 
all the varieties of essences. And what a variety of oils have 
we from the ohve, the palm, the castor bean, and the peanut. 
Nor are vegetable lard and hutter unknown. 

Whether for food or clothing, for medicine or luxury; 

* It is a matter of no ordinary interest to watch the appearance of 
the new suhstmices which, from time to time, are added to the number of 
articles already in use, as new substances for fuel^ lights food and cloth- 
ing. As an instance of the latter, I may refer to a report which recently 
appeared of a very '* timely discovery " of Mr. John Blanc, of New Orleans. 
He has "discovered a process of converting thirty different varieties 
of plants, which grow wild in enormous quantities in different sections 
of the Union, into flax of great strength and beautiful texture." He 
makes *' flax " from the stalks of the cotton plant — from the century tree 
or wild Manilla of Florida — from the wild holly -hock, which supplies a 
fibre of ten or fifteen feet long — from the golden nankeen, which is a 
natural nankeen color, and from more than a score of others. The pro- 
cess of preparation is represented as " simple and effectual, preserving 
all the strength of the staple." 



86 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KHSTG. 

whether to be used in tlie arts or in the prosecution of science, 
or merely to gratify the taste or please the eye, the Great Archi- 
tect has so strangely compounded the few simple materials of 
which all vegetable organizations are formed, and given them 
so many different forms and natures, as scarcely to leave a 
want of man unheeded. We betake ourselves to the forest, 
and here we meet the same wisdom and benevolence in 
ISTature's adaptation to meet the varied wants of man. If one 
forest were but a vast collection of stately pines ; another, of 
oaks or maples, or sycamores or cedars ; however useful each 
might be in its place, yet how completely would such an ar- 
rangement fail to meet man's necessities and convenience — 
and how much would it detract from the present beauty of our 
forests. 

But how variegated and beautiful our woodlands, as Nature 
has formed them. One tree is clothed in a robe of blossoms 
more gorgeously arrayed than Solomon in all his glory ; an- 
other yields you a pleasant gum, or a healing balsam, or a re- 
freshing beverage, or a delicious fruit ; another, sturdy and 
gnarled, shall form the rib of some noble ship ; or tall and 
straight and branchless, shall proudly carry the top-mast-sail. 
Another is fitted to cheer the winter's evening as it blazes on 
the domestic hearth. Here are met trees and shrubs of every 
degree of hardness, and softness, and elasticity, suited to be 
wrought into all sorts of utensils, vessels and furniture, as 
needed in every imaginable department of common life. What 
an en-dless variety of woods ! — what diversities of forms, of fo- 
liage and colors ! 

One of the most beautiful scenes in nature, and one which 
as beautifully illustrates my idea, is the variegated foliage of 



SEEDS HOW PEESERVED AND DISPERSED. 87 

an American forest after the first frosts of autumn. The name- 
less varieties of colors, and the inimitable blending together 
of every imaginable tint, extending over a vast forest, presents 
to the vision a view which is indescribably beautiful. 

Or I might refer, as another matter of pleasing interest, to 
the great variety of ways in which the seeds of plants are ma- 
tured and preserved, and then dispersed so as to reproduce all 
the present varieties of plants. What we term fruits^ are but 
the different contrivances of Nature to protect, or aid in the 
dispersion and the future germination of the seed. Seeds are 
produced in every variety of form, size, color, taste and con- 
sistence. But what is a matter of yet greater interest, is the 
great variety of ways in which they are protected and scat- 
tered. Some are singly ensconced in a hard, ligneous shell, 
secure from all but a few species of depredators. Others, includ- 
ing nearly the whole variety of our fruits, are incased in a pulpy 
substance of greater or less bulk and consistence, which, when 
matured, falls to the ground and forms of itself a sort of mould 
in which, without the aid of man, it takes root and reproduces 
its kind. The seeds of otliers are inclosed in a very light ball 
"which is tossed about by the wind ; and others are furnished 
with winged appendages, or attached to a downy substance, or 
strung on fine hairs, by which they are wafted abroad; and 
others still are found in seed vessels, or pods, or a bristly burr, 
which, on becoming dry, burst open with a force that scatters 
them around. 

Both for the purpose of appropriating an additional authori- 
ty to confirm what has been said in the present chapter, and 
'to add further illustrations, I shall transcribe a paragraph oi 
two from Dr. Dick's excellent book, entitled the " Christian 



88 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

Philosoplier." Of the great number of species of plants which 
are known, and, as he suggests, of the perhaps greater number 
in regions unexplored, yet to be classified, he says : 

" Every one of these species of plants differs from another, in its 
size, structure, form, flowers, leaves, fruits, mode of propagation, 
color, medical virtues, nutritious qualities, internal vessels, and the 
odors it exhales. They are of all sizes, from the microscopic mush- 
room, invisible to the naked eye, to the sturdy oak, and the cedar 
of Lebanon, and from the slender willow to the banyan tree, under 
whose shade 7,000 persons may find ample room to repose. A 
thousand different shades of color distinguish the different species. 
Every one wears its peculiar livery and is distinguished by its own 
native hues 5 and many of their inherent beauties can be distin- 
guished only by the help of the microscope. Some grow upright, 
others creep along in a serpentine form. Some flourish for ages, 
others wither and decay in a few months ; some spring up in moist, 
others in dry soils ; some turn towards the sun, others shrink and 
contract when we approach to touch them. Not only are the dif- 
ferent species of plants and flowers distinguished from each other, 
by their different forms, but even the different individuals of the 
same species. No two flowers can be found in which the shape and 
shades are exactly similar. Of all the hundred thousand millions 
of plants, trees, herbs, and flowers, with which our globe is varie- 
gated, there are not, perhaps, two individuals precisely alike, in 
every point of view in which they may be contemplated ; yea, there 
is not, perhaps, a single leaf in the forest, when minutely examined, 
that will not be found to differ, in certain aspects, from its fellows. 
Such is the wonderful and infinite diversity with wliich the Creator 
has adorned the vegetable kingdom. 

" His wisdom is also evidently displayed in the vast profusion 
of vegetable nature — in adapting each plant to the soil and situation 
in which it is destined to flourish — in furnishing it with those ves- 
sels by which it absorbs the air and moisture on which it feeds ; 
and in adapting it to the nature and necessities of animated beings. 
As the earth teems with animated existence, and as the different 
tribes of animals depend chiefly on the productions of the vegeta- 
ble kingdom for their subsistence, so there is an abundance and 
variety of plants adapted to the peculiar constitutions of every in- 



DOMAINS OF VEGETATION ENLARGING. 89 

dividual species. This circumstance demonstrates, that there is a 
precontrived relation and fitness between the internal constitution 
of the animal and the nature of the plants which afford it nourish- 
ment ; and shows us, that the animal and the vegetable kingdoms 
are the workmanship of one and the same Almighty Being, and 
that, in his arrangements with regard to the one, he had in view the 
necessities of the other." 

Every year is enlarging the domains of the great vegetable 
world — not only in bringing new species and new varieties to 
our acquaintance, but teaching us new uses of those already 
known. Substances once considered useless, if not poisonous, 
are now numbered among the useful articles ; and some of them 
have been installed among the essential articles of every day 
life, either for food, clothing, or in the useful arts. 

We may close this chapter with a reference to a very singu- 
lar species of tree found on the island of Goa near Bombay. 
It is, in some of its characteristics, quite unique. It is called 
the " sorrowful tree," because it only flourishes in the night. 
At sunset no flowers are to be seen ; and yet, half an hour 
after, it is quite full of them. They yield a sweet smell ; but 
the sun no sooner begins to shine upon them than some of 
them fall ojff, and others close up ; and thus it continues flow- 
ering in the night the whole year. " Grace in the soul of the 
believer," says one, " is just such a flower. In the dark night 
of affliction it is fresh and fragrant, puts out its bloom and 
seems full of immortality; but when the sun of prosperity 
arises and shines upon it, and it is surrounded by earthly com- 
forts, then for the first time its divine life withers ; it collapses 
and shuts up its leaves." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Animal Kingdom— The Scale of Z-^/e-The "Yast Chain of Being"— The 
Animal World a Counterpart of the Yegetable. 

In the brief survey taken of the vegetable kingdom we have 
seen how, by the most singular variety and profusion, the 
great Parent has provided for all the varied wants and happi- 
ness of his creatures. And not only is vegetable life met in 
every region of the earth, and in every nook and corner where 
animal want, or appetite, or pleasure can require it ; but such 
is the exuberance of vegetable nature that '^heaths, deserts, 
uninhabitable islands, and mountains," have been made to pro- 
duce their peculiar vegetation — though such vegetation may 
contribute, at present, little or nothing to either the wants or 
pleasures of man or beast. 

But as we turn to the vast arena of living things we shall 
discover reasons^ not only for the exhaustless profusion and the 
endlessly varied character of vegetable life, but for a no less 
intense admiration of the correspondingly profuse and varied 
productions of animal life. Every department of vegetation 
is to be regarded as the very counterpart of, and as suited 
to its respective tenants. The verdant field is the pasture- 
ground of flocks and herds, and of all the teeming armies of 
insect-life that feed on its surface. Every forest is the roam- 
ing ground of its own wild tenants. " The trees of the Lord 



UNIFORMITY OF NATURE'S LAWS. 91 

are full of sap" — full of foliage and flowers and nutritious 
fruits for the use of man and beast, bird and insect — " the 
cedars of Lebanon which he has planted, where the birds make 
their nests." Every leaf is a play ground and a pasture ground 
for the numerous tribes that roam and feed and sport on its 
surface. Every flower, vocal with the songs of its merry ten- 
ants, is the resort or the residence of numerous families of liv- 
ing creatures that seek pleasure or perfume or nectarine sweets, 
or a floral shade or shelter, in its soft and quiet bosom. Every 
variety of flower has its own peculiar inhabitants that seek in 
it protection, food or pleasure. Indeed, we shall everywhere 
discover a beautiful correspondence between the animal and the 
vegetable worlds. The one is made for the other. 

We may here remark, once for all, that while the laws of 
Nature have been so framed by the Great Architect as to 
secure a specific variety throughout the wide domains of all 
organized beings, it is a fact, not the less interesting, that the 
same laws as certainly secure a general uniformity throughout 
the entire range of animal and vegetable life. There every- 
where appears a unity of design and composition. Every 
species of animals or of vegetables is made after the same 
model, yet how unlike! Every tree or plant has the same 
general form, structure and functions of life and growth. Every 
member of the great family of man, every individual horse, 
sheep, or dog, conforms to one original pattern. A deviation 
from this makes a monster. And not only does every indi- 
vidual of every species bear the unmistakable mark of a general 
uniformity, but every member and function presents the same 
marks. Though the ears, nose, eyes or hands of no two indi- 
viduals are alike, yet no two vary so much that you are in the 



92 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

least danger of mistaking them as the corresponding members 
of any other animals, or to lead to doubt whether they are 
shaped after the same model. We are in no danger of mistak- 
ing the nose of a dog or a pig for that of a man. Nature's 
laws of uniformity are as rigidly adhered to as those of variety. 
In the contemplation of animal life^ the first thing that 
arrests the attention is the gradation of being which we at 
once discover. This in itself presents another very interesting 
and extensive series of varieties, and may claim some special 
consideration. 

" Vast chain of being ! which from God began, 
Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man, 
Beast, bird, fish, insect ! what no eye can see, 
No glass can reach ; from infinite to thee ; 
From thee to nothing." 

Our capacities are at present too limited, and our field of 
observation too narrow, to attempt to comprehend such a chaiu 
or scale of being as is here suggested. Should we take our 
position at the point or link marked "man," and attempt to 
look downwards through every descending grade of being to 
the most imperfect specimen of life — to the scarcely organized 
and the scarcely vital monad, which forms the last link of 
animate existence; and from the same point were we to 
attempt to reach upwards, through all the principalities and 
powers, and thrones and dominions, and whatever grades and 
orders of intelligences there may be between man, the first in 
order among intelligent creatures, to the last and highest of 
finite beings — to the great chasm which separates the finite 
from the Infinite, we should seem to stand between two in- 



GRADATION OF ANIMAL LIFE. 93 

finities : tlie infinitely high and the infinitely low. Yet neither 
is infinite, except to our lack of comprehension. Either end 
of the " vast chain " lies within the boundaries of the finite ; 
though probably no human conception, in its present range at 
least, is able to reach to either end. The researches of natural- 
ists assure us of the existence of such a continuous chain of being, 
though it is interrupted by chasms, produced perhaps by the 
extinction of certain species, or quite as often by our ignorance 
of the existence of the apparently missing links. Certain it is 
that the number and the length of these chasms are diminish- 
ing with every new discovery into the great universe of life. 

But we will take our position at the foot of the scale, or as 
near the foot as the present state of microscopic research will 
allow, and try to get at least some imperfect idea of the grada- 
tion up as far as Man. And what an illimitable field of varied 
life here stretches out before us. He that sung so well of man 
has expressed it thus : 

" Far as creation's ample range extends, 
The scale of sensual, mental powers ascend ; 
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race, 
From the green myriads in the peopled grass." 

But we must not forget that the great chain of being does 
not end when we arrive at the lowest link of animal existence. 
Animal and vegetable life singularly interlace. There are 
connecting links which join the two. And then when we 
have traced down every grade of vegetable life from the most 
perfect to the least perfect, we shall, at the lower end of the 
chain, again find our connecting links uniting the vegetable 
and mineral kingdoms. 



94 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

'' The smallest microscopical objects wHch can be supposed 
to be organic are points, or gelatinous globules, or threads in 
which no distinct organs, interior or exterior, can be dis- 
covered." We thence ascend to a class of zoophytes^ which 
bear distinct marks of organization, called porifera or the 
sponge-makers, or a slightly higher order still, called polypi, 
which construct the coral. Both of these bear strong resem- 
blance to vegetable growths. From this point of half animal 
half vegetable organization we may ascend the scale through 
every conceivable grade, from the senseless polype that vege- 
tates rather than lives, to the most perfect human organization 
and intelligence. We shall see how, in form, size, organiza- 
tion, activity, instinct and intelligence, these rise in beautiful 
order, one above the other. 

Passing by the teeming worlds of microscopic life, in which, 
did the present state of science admit of the requisite investiga- 
tion, we should doubtless meet the same gradation of being, 
from the little invisible speck which is half monad half mole- 
cule, to the equally invisible mite of exquisite form, organiza- 
tion and color, and fall of activity and pleasure, we need only 
trace up the gradation from the lowest form of visible life — 
from the torpid, senseless, shapeless muscle to the perfectly 
organized, the active, intelligent being called man. As we 
ascend through all the numberless grades of creeping things ; 
through all the aquatic and insect tribes, and through all the 
varieties of birds and beasts of every wing and hoof till we 
arrive at the eagle, the dog, the monkey, the beaver, and the 

* "A term expressing animal plants or vegetating animals, and 
defined to mean composite animals cfHorcscing like vegetables," as the 
sponge, coral, and polypus. 



MAN AND HIS GEADE. 95 

elephant, we shall find we have passed every imaginable grade 
of animal life in reference to form, size, physical organization, 
locomotive capabilities, sagacity, instinct and intelligence, and 
we pass on to man^ who stands at the head of all mundane 
beings, the most perfect in all physical and mental endow- 
ments, and yet doubtless constituting the lowest link in the 
chain of intellectual and immortal beings. 

The gradation in question admits of a wide range of illus- 
tration. Take hearing, seeing, instinct, strength of muscle, 
activity— whatever attribute of life or endowment you will, and 
the gradation appears in all these respective lines : 

" What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain and the lynx's beam : 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between 
And hound sagacious on the tainted green : 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood 
To that which warbles in the vernal wood.'* 

And what different degrees of instinct guide the brute 
creation until, in some animals, it seems scarcely inferior to 
human reason. Or take hearing, seeing, power of muscle, or 
what attribute of life or animal endowment you will, and you 
may trace a gradation in each respective line. It is instinct 
that guides the half-vegetable polyp to deposit his secretion so 
as to form the coral or the sponge. It is instinct, in its higher 
office, that teaches the bird to construct her nest. More skil- 
ful yet, the bee, moved by the same 'singular impulse, builds 
her cells and deposits her honey. And, in a yet higher func- 
tion, instinct impels the beaver, with a sagacity and calculation 
almost human, to construct his dam and to erect his house. 

We have alluded to connecting links — how the mineral and 



96 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

the vegetable kingdoms so interlace : one species of tlie one so 
running into a species of the other, that you can scarcely deter- 
mine where the one ends and the other begins. Some vege- 
tables contain mineral substances; others appear like mineral 
bodies. Some minerals possess certain forms and properties 
of vegetable productions : coral is an instance of the former. 
Though while in the art of forming it presents a rare connection 
of the animal and mineral kingdoms, yet when constructed 
and examined as a mineral substance, it presents some striking 
points of resemblance to the vegetable organizations. The 
coral often takes the form of trees, groves, gardens, flower-beds, 
and almost every sort of vegetable organization. There is a 
liberal interchange of properties between vegetables and 
minerals. The former become petrified, and the latter are 
converted into soils, and become incorporated with animal 
life. 

But if we look at the other end of the chain of vegetable 
productions, we shall be still more impressed, as we approach 
the uncertain line of demarcation between the vegetable and 
the animal kingdoms, with the very accommodating disposi- 
tions of the two. We speak not now of the well>known near 
approach of certain species of vegetables to certain species of 
animals in point of form and organization, but rather of a 
singular sort of interchange of productions between the two 
kingdoms ; or, at least, of attempts on the part of tho lower 
kingdom to overstep its l)ounds, and to usurp the province of 
its superior ; an aspiration not unnatural, of the lower order to 
occupy a higher position in the scale of being. Hence certain 
vegetables are found to yield animal products, and thus to 
take the place of the animals whose peculiar properties they 



INTERL AGINGS OF DIFFEEENT NATURES. 97 

assume. We have vegetable milk, butter, lard, oil, wax, wool, 
leather. The palo de vaco has undertaken to play the cow ; 
the myrica to imitate the bee ; a tree in Guayaquil to produce 
wool ; other trees yield oil, lard, and other animal substances. 

Nor do we meet these singular interlacings of different na- 
tures only on the confines of the two kingdoms, but between 
different species of the same kingdom. They are discovered 
to exist between fishes and quadrupeds ; between fishes and 
birds ; between quadrupeds and birds ; and between the brute 
species and man. The frog, the turtle, the alligator, may be 
cited as instances of nature's attempts to make the fish per- 
sonate the quadruped ; the flying squirrel, the bat, and the 
flying opossum indicate the aspirations of legs to become wings. 
And the same lofty aspirations have possessed certain of the 
finny tribes, as is seen in the case of the flying-fish. Dragons 
occupy the transition ground between birds and reptiles. On 
the other hand, we meet with birds, as the ostrich, the casso- 
wary and the dodo, which, in their nature and habits, approxi- 
mate to quadrupeds. Though furnished with wings they can 
scarcely fly at all, but walk or run like the horse or dog. Other 
animals, some in one respect, and some in another, essay to 
overstep the boundaries which separate rational and brute na- 
tures. The elephant invades the territories of man in his " half 
reasoning " capabilities ; the monkey in his organization and 
some of his habits and instincts ; the beaver and the dog, in 
respect to sagacity and social proclivities. 

Or we might select a single species and we should not 

lack examples by which to illustrate our idea of a continuous 

scale of being. Take the horse, the dog, the cat, or any 

species of our domestic animals, and what different degrees of 

5 



98 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

sagacity, instinct and activity ! One is stupid and comparative- . 
ly senseless ; another shows a degree of intelligence that is 
scarcely less than human. But the scale is more distinctly 
marked, and vastly more extensive, in the animal man. He 
being an animal capable of indefinite improvement, and en- 
dowed with reason, and possessed of an indefinite number of 
wants which science and civilization and his social habits in- 
duce, and having a vastly wider scope for the exercise of his 
powers, physical and intellectual, presents a correspondingly 
wide diversity in all the developments of his mind and in his 
physical condition. There are, consequently, almost as many 
grades of men as there are individuals of the race. 

We begin at the foot of the scale ; where we meet the Es- 
quimaux or the Hottentot, the most besotted savage, and from 
this point we ascend, through every degree of advancement, to 
the climax of human culture and elevation. Wealth, position, 
mental culture, society and civilization, fortune or personal 
enterprise and industry, or the cultivation of the moral aff*ec- 
tions, or all these combined, have ranged men in every imagi- 
nable grade in the scale, from the most beggarly elements of 
humanity which form the lowest state of the race, to man in 
the highest type of his earthly development. The eminent 
Christian philosopher occupies such a position; whose mind 
and heart are together cultivated in the highest degree, and 
whose well-sustained position gives him power among men. 
What a vast chasm between our savage and such a man as 
Moses, I^uther, Newton, Wilberforce, Washington ; or rather 
the man wlio should combine in one (as is possible) /Jie peculiar 
excellences of all these men. Not till we shall be able to 
count up every intermediate link — trace out and define, and 



WHEEE DOES THE GEADATION CEASE ? 99 

assign a place in the scale to every individual man, from the 
lowest to the highest, may we know the number of the links or 
the length of the chain when contemplated only within the 
sphere of human life. 

Eegarded as a Divine arrangement designed to produce re- 
sults of the most useful and benevolent character, we cannot 
too profoundly admire this gradation of being. We see all 
things and beings most beautifully fitted, each to its place and 
work ; all alike necessary to make up the great whole, and to 
accomplish the great ends of their Divine Author. The end- 
less diversities of gifts, graces, endowments ; capabilities, pow- 
ers, susceptibilities, as secured by the singularly diversified 
character and condition of man, are but so many different 
adaptations to fulfil the equally varied duties of life : each 
infinitely varied, yet all beautifully harmonious in the accom- 
plishment of the same wise purposes. 

But does the gradation cease when it has passed from man 
into the regions of celestial life '^ Shall we not find those be- 
ings of a higher intellectual grade, rising, in ascending scale, 
one class above another ? And where is the upper end of this 
^^chain ? To believe that all those higher Intelligences, which 
we are wont to call by the general term of angels^ are all of the 
same order and station, and that glorified men differ not in 
this respect, would be to contradict the whole analogy of things 
known. And more than this, we have intimations in the 
sacred Word, that the same analogy does run through all the 
heavenly hosts. We read of angels, archangels, principali- 
ties, powers, thrones, dominions, seraphim, cherubim, and the 
" mighty angels " — all which seem to be distinctions of grade. 
The names of a few angels are given from which we seem to 



100 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

get a clue also to tlie orders that exist among them. Gabriel 
means the power of God ; which seems to designate him as the 
one approaching nearest to God in respect to power. Michael^ 
means Who is like God ; pointing out perhaps some more gen- 
eral resemblances in his character to the high and holy One. 
Speaking of the inhabitants of that blessed world, the Apostle 
says there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, 
another of the stars, and that one star differeth from another 
in glory. 

Plere are distinctions obviously recognized, different degrees 
of excellence — which would seem to imply distinctions of office 
and rank. 

Yet we have a still stronger probability, in the nature of 
the case. All these higher and holier beings are intelligent 
creattcres. They have minds that are doubtless subject to the 
general laws of mind. They have duties and employments — 
are continually putting forth activities and employing their vast 
energies of mind ; and, like all intelligent beings, derive their 
happiness very much from the exercise of their mental powers. 
Without a succession of new objects, new scenes, new trains of 
thought, the mind would sicken with satiety and disgust. But 
the different degrees of mental power and capability is but a 
different degree of capacity for action ; and this the only 
true foundation of a difference of rank. Once put the inhabit- 
ants of the celestial world on a level as to powers of mind and 
capabilities of action, and you would probably hush, into one 
dead monotony, the infinitely varied praises of heaven and ar- 
rest the ten thousand times ten thousand holy activities in 
which the inhabitants of that blissful world are engaged. One 
class of those wonderful beings are, perhaps, distinguished by 

4 



HEAVENLY GRADATIOlSrS. 101 

their extraordinary locomotive powers, by which they may be 
able to visit with the celerity of light the remotest star that 
sparkles in the universe. Another class may as far excel in 
astronomical investigations, or the knowledge of other worlds, so 
that they may guide the researches of others as they essay to 
search out the ^^ marvellous works" of God, and make these the 
theme of eternal praise. Others, possessed of a taste and ca- 
pability, not so much to gauge the dimensions of other worlds^ 
and to grasp the magnitude of the material universe, as to 
search into the nature^ and to study the design^ the uses and 
adaptations of things, unfold, in other interesting aspects, the 
wonders of creative skill and power. While another class are 
employing the vast powers of their minds in studying the won- 
ders of Providence : or, with some peculiar qualifications for 
the delightful task, the endless, exhaustless theme, they launch 
forth on the boundless field of the " manifold grace " of God^ 
and from age to age of duration eternal, penetrate into the 
mysteries of redemption. 

What various labors of love are to be performed ; what er- 
rands of mercy to be executed ; what various works of praise 
to be performed ; what Divine truths and heavenly sciences to 
be studied; and how are all the "ways" and the '^ works" of 
God to be searched out, and lessons of heavenly wisdom, and 
motives for praise and adoration, to be deduced from them ! 

These are some of the surmises, founded however on the 
analogy and the nature of things, which induce the belief that 
the same scale of being which we discover to extend up from the 
most imperfectly formed mineral substance to the connecting 
links which unite the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, and 
thence through all the whole range of vegetable life ; and by 



102 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

an easy transition into ttie great world of animal existence, 
and thence onward through a regular ascending gradation to 
man, is continued from the lov/est in the scale of superhuman 
intelligences to the most highly endowed Being that surrounds 
the throne or falls at the feet of the Great I am. 

But beyond this our surmises may not attempt, to reach. 
Here we suppose this wonderful chain of being ends. Yet 
here we find ourselves involved in a singular kind of mystery. 
We may not for a moment compare finite with Infinite. Here 
is a chasm, an impassable gulf — that they that would pass may 
not. Yet there has been a singular interchange of the Divine 
and human natures. The Man of Nazareth was God. The 
Man at God's right hand sits as God's coequal, to receive and 
to take to the throne with himself men of an earth-born race. 
They are, in a sense, while yet in the flesh, " partakers of the 
Divine nature," and are destined to become such in a much 
higher sense. We are left here to an interesting conjecture as 
to how much is implied in the promise of heirship with God^ 
and joint heirship with Christ — how much is implied in the 
idea of being like Christy and of heing perfect as God is perfect. 
We do not know what relations there may be between the finite 
and the Infinite. Though the finite can never reach the Infi- 
nite, yet we know not what approximations may be made to it. 
When we connect the idea here suggested with the fact (a .fact, 
at least, as far as we know) that the human mind is capable 
of infinite progress, we are lost in our conjectures as to what, 
after the lapse of countless ages of eternity, may be the final 
destiny of man. 

Divine Inspiration affords occasional liints of something 
very much like what I have here intimated. "In Christ 



UNIOISr WITH THE DIYINE NATURE. 103 

dwelletli all tlie fulness of the Godhead bodily ;" and of all the 
adopted sons of God, it is said, " of his fulness have we all 
received." ''Ye are complete in him who is the head of all 
principality and power." In another place the same Apostle, 
speaking of such as are "strengthened with might by his 
Spirit, according to the riches of his glory — in whose hearts 
Christ dwells by faith — rooted and grounded in love ; that is, 
all true belie^rs," he says, are ''filled with the fulness of God." 
The expression here used, the fulness of God, may fail, like all 
other terms used to describe the future blessedness of the 
saint, to convey a full and definite idea to the mind as at pres- 
ent capacitated. It conveys a higher idea than we can at pres- 
ent comprehend — an idea in respect to the relation of glorified 
humanity to God, as glorious and ecstatic as it is mysterious 
and indefinite. He that leaned on Jesus' bosom reached after 
the identity, and his faith seemed to grasp it, yet, while impris- 
oned in the clay, he could not gauge the height and the breadth 
and the length of the riches and honors and pleasures reserved 
in heaven for the righteous. "Behold," says he, "what man- 
ner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should 
be called the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be : but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be 
like him ; for we shall see him as he is." A most extraordi- 
nary announcement, intimating, no doubt, the wonderful, the 
unutterable destiny of poor fallen humanity. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Animal Kingdom: Species of Animals— Individual Yarieties— Organs of Loco- 
motion — Legs, Wings, Eyes, Ears, Noses — Clothing — Habitations— "Weapons of 
Defence— The Feathered Tribes. 

In our visit to Nature's great Museum we have allowed tlie eye 
to take a cursory glance over the whole " vast chain of being," 
from the most imperfectly formed object to the noble creature 
man, and thence onward through all the orders of higher in- 
telligences to the highest and holiest angel that bows before 
the throne of the Great Eternal. We will now turn aside 
and look in upon a single department of the great Palace. 
We recur to the animal kingdom, and limit ourselves at present 
chiefly to the brute creation. 

As we traverse this wide field of research we shall, as we 
pass from object to object, especially note, as displaying the 
peculiar beauty of the Divine workmanship, the singular vari- 
ety which characterizes the whole. We have seen what a 
beautiful succession and gradation of life there is from the most 
imperfectly organized, jelly-like polype to the noble elephant, or 
the sagacious dog or monkey ; each seeming to rival, in sagaci- 
ty and reason, man himself. Every link in this vast chain is 
a variety. But this is but the beginning of animal varieties — 
scarcely more than a variety equal to the number of species. 



SPECIES OF ANIMALS. 105 

But the moment you descend to sub-species and individuals, 
the number of varieties are multiplied beyond all computation. 
Here we might spend our threescore years and ten, regal- 
ing each successive moment with some new variety. Not less, 
all told, than 250,000* species of living animals, exclusive of 
fossil species, have been enumerated, including, in all, some 
billions of individuals or actual varieties. Man alone, in each 
successive generation, affords a specimen of 800,000,000 indi- 
vidual varieties. And were we to descend to details, this im- 
mense number would need to be increased by the aggregate of 
all the varieties of each individual man ; physical, mental, 
moral, social ; varieties of form, structure, size ; of taste, tem- 
perament and condition ; of genius, habit and aptitude. Sup- 
pose the entire race of quadrupeds only, were for a moment to 
occupy the field of our vision, what an idea should we get of 
the manifold wisdom of God in moulding matter into so many 
living forms. Allow the mind to run down through all the 

* It is estimated that there are 20,000 vertebrated animals ; there are 
probably 2,000 species of mammals, 6,000 of birds, and 2,000 of reptiles. 
There are probably 8,000 or 10,000 species of fishes, and more than 1 5,000 of 
moUusks. It is difficult to estimate the number of species of articulated 
animals ; it is supposed there are from 60,000 to 80,000 species of insects 
alone, and at least 100,000 of all the species belonging to this department, 
including microscopical animals, while some estimate it at double that 
number. Of the radiata, or fourth great division of the animal kingdom, 
there are about 10,000 species, making about 250,000 species of living an- 
imals, to say nothing of fossil species. In the gallery of zoology of the 
Jardin des Plantes at Paris, it is estimated that there are more than 
200,000 specimens of the animal kingdom, among which are 2,000 of the 
mammalia of 500 different species, and 5,000 of fishes of about 2,500 
species. 

5* 



106 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

intermediate grades, from the huge, " half-reasoning " elephant 
to the insignificant mole, contemplating their respective form, 
size, color, nature, habits, dispositions and uses, and what an 
idea will you get of the diversified character of the Divine 
workmanship ! 

But would we avail ourselves of the happiest illustrations 
of our subject, we must descend to species, sub-species and in 
dividuals. In almost any race of animals w^e meet a great 
variety of forms, stature Sj colors, but they are the most numer- 
ous in the domesticated animals. Take for examples, the dog, 
the horse, the ox, goats and swine. The dog affords a fine 
specimen, not only of the usual variety in animal life, but, be- 
ing as he is the companion of man in all lands and latitudes, 
he affords an equally good specimen of the tendency of provi- 
dential arrangements to produce variety. The hairless, smooth, 
unctuous-skinned dog of Egypt is scarcely more like the shaggy 
fur-clad dog of the cold regions of the north, than the northern 
sheep is like the southern goat. Whoever will have the curi- 
osity to run down the line of dogs, from the bloodhound to the 
lady's pet-dog or poodle, inclusive, he will not lack an inter- 
esting illustration of our theme. 

But a cursory survey of this kind would at once lead us 
into the inquiry as to the origin of dogs, whether from some 
one species, as the shepherd's dog, the present varieties origi- 
nating in climate, condition, usage, circumstance ; or w^hether 
their origin shall be traced to the fox, the jackal or the w^olf, 
or to each of these sources. 

But w^hether the original type be one or many, no animal 
offers more varieties. The water dog is covered with curly hair 
almost as thick as the fleece of a sheep ; the Turkish dog, like 



DOGS, OXEN, GOATS AND HORNED HORSES. 107 

the Egyptian, is totally destitute of hair. Then there is the 
gaunt greyhound, with long and slender nose and legs, and 
remarkable for his swiftness and the quickness of his scent. 
Another species of hound is of a thick, robust form, with a 
short, obtuse nose, less swift, but not of a less keen sense of 
smell. But we should not soon find an end of the varieties of 
this species of animal. In form, size, color, dispositions, apti- 
tudes, and the various ways in which they serve man, they bear 
a no slight resemblance to our own race. 

The horse and the ox kinds furnish exceedingly interesting 
varieties. Between the noble Arab and the contemptible pack- 
horse of Northern Germany or South America, how varied the 
gradations. In size, form, structure, qualities, capabilities, 
color, temperament, how varied. 

We meet the long-legged ox of the Cape of Good Hope and 
the short-legged cattle of England — cattle with long horns and 
short horns — with all sorts of horns and no horns. In Crete 
and Sicily, the cattle and sheep differ from those of most other 
countries in the number and size of their horns. In Paraguay 
we meet a breed of oxen without horns. A writer (Azara) has 
stated that the lack of horns in the bovine kind, is sometimes 
compensated by the fact that horses are sometimes seen rearing 
above their ears a pair of horns. In India, we have often seen 
sheep furnished with four horns each. 

The goat tribes furnish fine specimens of variety. A breed 
near Jerusalem, presents a grotesque medley of color, as black, 
white, gray, with ears remarkably long. About Aleppo are 
two kinds of goats, one like the English, and the other some- 
what larger, with ears a foot long and proportionally broad. 

In few races of animals has Nature been more lavish of hef 



108 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

ingenuity in variegating her works, than in the swine tribes. 
This very common and numerous species of animal, was un- 
known in America till after its discovery by the Spaniards, 
yet already, how one breed differs from another, and bow all 
differ from the original stock. The European swine which 
were first carried by the Spaniards to the Island of Cologna, 
degenerated into a monstrous race, with toes which were half 
a span in length. The hoofs of swine elsewhere, have been 
found divided into five clefts. While, on the other hand, 
swine with solid hoofs were known to the ancients, as they are 
found to this day, in some parts of England. And different 
breeds of sheep afford varieties equally remarkable. Some 
have a coating of wool as fine as silk, others, a covering as 
coarse as hair. Some have tw^o horns ; some, as the Icelandic, 
three, four, and even eight ; and more have none at all. And 
these horns assume every conceivable form. And what variety 
in the appendages called tails. Some range within reasonable 
limits of such appendages ; others are hugely large. The 
Syrian sheep drag after them a caudal weight of fifteen 
pounds,' and sometimes five times that weight. 

The domestic fowl is a good example. It is large or small, 
tall or dwarfish — single or double-combed — of every conceiva- 
ble color and plumage — tufts of feathers on its head — yellow, 
white or black legs, or legs covered with feathers or bare, and 
rumps or no rumps. 

The coverings and habitations of animals furnish another 
pleasant variety in their history ; among the most obvious of 
which we meet hair, wool, fur, bristles, feathers, quills, scales 
and shells ; and we find them constructing for themselves, or 
appropriating to their use, every imaginable form and kind of 



THE BEAVER AND HIS HABITS. 109 

dwelling : some dig burrows in the earth ; others seek a habi- 
tation in the clefts of rocks, or in the cavities of decayed trees, 
and others absolutely construct cabins or houses with no incon- 
siderable skill and labor. The subject is a very curious one 
and worthy of some reflection. The various skill employed, the 
various materials used, and the various structures produced, 
affords an apt illustration of our general idea. We can name 
but a few instances. 

The beaver is perhaps one of the most extraordinary. 
These wonderful animals, at present scarcely known in our 
latitudes, yet still inhabiting more northern regions, collect in 
communities of 200 or 300 in the month of June or July, 
pouring in from every quarter, as to an appointed rendezvous, 
by some common summons or by some singular impulse. The 
place of assemblage is always the bank of some water. If it 
be a lake or pond, and not subject to risings or fallings above 
a common level, they make no dam, but immediately set about 
constructing their habitations. If a dam be needful, they be- 
take themselves to its construction in a manner quite astonish- 
ing. First, they fell a large tree across the stream as the 
basis of their work, and then by the aid of smaller trees, cut to 
the right length, and boughs and earth, or stones, they con- 
struct a dam which, for strength and solidity, is all but incred- 
ible. This being accomplished, the community at once divide 
themselves into separate families, each constructing for itself a 
domestic dwelling, which they build near the margin of the 
pond, on piles driven down for the purpose. On these they 
erect a round or oval house of great solidity ; one, two and 
sometimes three stories high, with two doors, the one affording 
a passage to the land and the other to the water. 



110 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT ' KING. 

The varied styles of architecture employed by different 
species of birds in the construction of their nests^ the different 
materials used, and the different locations and positions 
selected, have been greatly admired. ISFo two species con- 
struct their nests of precisely the same material. Some use 
mud or clay ; some sticks, grass, hair, moss, feathers, or bones 
cemented together ; and no two build in the same place. 
Some choose the cavities of trees, or the branch, or some slen- 
der twig of a tree, or the trunk of the tree ; others select the 
cleft of a rock, or build in some sheltered place on the ground, 
or attach their nests to a wall or chimney, or the rafter of a 
barn, or the cross-piece of a bridge. The kingly eagle selects 
the lone peak of some lofty mountain, constructs a substantial 
platform, designed to last for years, of sticks of ^yq or six feet 
long, supported at each end by a rock or tree, and covered 
with successive layers of heath and rushes. The surface which 
contains the eggs is flat, not hollow like the nests of other 
birds. Quite in contrast to this, the magpie and the titmouse 
build nests which are not only hollow like the nests of most 
birds, but are protected by a curiously wrought dome, and entered 
by an opening in the side. " Some form their pensile nests in 
the form of a purse, deep, and open at the top ; others, with a 
hole in the side ; and others, still more cautious, with an en- 
trance at the very bottom, forming their lodge near the sum- 
mit." The tailor-bird, not willing to trust its nest even at the 
extremity of a twig, fixes it to a leaf. It picks a dead leaf, 
and with its bill for a needle and some f^WQ fibres for thread, 
sews it to a living leaf, which, lined with feathers, gossamer and 
down, serves as a nest. 

The mason-bee constructs its cells and covers them with a 



BEES, WASPS A]S"D ANTS. Ill 

ro.igli, substantial mortar, composed of sand and a secretion 
from its own body. The bee called the wood-piercer perforates 
a dry or decayed tree, first in the direction of the heart, and 
then extending twelve or fifteen inches at right angles up- 
wards. These long holes are subdivided by partitions com- 
posed of particles of wood cemented by a secretion from the 
animal's mouth. In each compartment an egg is deposited, 
together with the necessary provision for the young one when 
hatched. Another species of these " solitary bees " construct 
cells somewhat similar under ground, and having in like man- 
ner provided for their future offspring, leave them, as in the 
case above, to take care of .themselves. 

Most people are aware of the ingenious devices by which 
various kinds of wasps construct their habitations, build their 
cells and provide for their young ; all, however, are surpassed 
by the skill and sagacity of the honey-hee. The various 
species of ants have each a style of architecture, and use a 
species of building material peculiar to itself. Some construct 
a habitation below the surface of the earth ; some drill holes in 
trees and form their nests there ; others build on the trunks 
or branches of trees ; while others still, as the termites^ erect 
palaces, partly below ground, yet extending above the surface 
twelve or fifteen feet. These " ant hills," met in tropical 
regions, are built with an astonishing degree of skill and labor. 
They contain a great variety of apartments, and, as seen from a 
distance, might be taken for the huts of the natives. 

As nearly related to the above, we have the various modes 
in which different animals nourish or provide for their offspring. 
The mammalia nourish theirs from their own body. The do- 
domestic fowl scratches for hers. Most birds bring food to 



112 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

their young in their bills. Bees and wasps of different kinds 
provide stores for their young beforehand. The wood-piercer, 
to which I have referred, builds the cell and fills it with pro- 
vision for the young ones, deposits her eggs, and exercises 
no further regard for either eggs or young ones. The young 
of some species are from the very first capable of providing for 
themselves. 

Again, we discover among animals a curious variety in 
modes of procuring their food. Some seek it, labor hard for it, 
and prepare it at great expense ; others have it brought to them 
all prepared, without any care or trouble to themselves. The 
toad patiently waits till the heedless fly comes within the in- 
fluence of its suction J when it is drawn in and devoured. The 
chicken, with his delicate nippers, picks up the seed or bug it 
has disinterred with its claws. The domestic animals depend 
for their supplies on the care of man. The tenants of the 
forest and the birds of the air procure their daily supplies in 
all sorts of ways and by all sorts of means. 

An(f there is also as great a diversity in modes of appro- 
priating food or bringing it to the mouth. Most animals have 
no other prehensile organ but the mouth itself, whether it be a 
bill, or jaws, or snout or proboscis. A few, as the squirrel, the 
monkey, can bring their food to their mouth by their fore-paws 
acting as hands. Some animals, by means of their claws and 
bill or teeth, first tear their food and separate it into small por- 
tions and then convey it to the mouth ; others can appropriate 
nothing except what they can swallow whole ; some are sup- 
plied with a spoon, or a knife, or a fork, or a hook ; others, as 
the elephant, with a flexible arm. The wood-pecker darts his 
long tongue into a crevice of the wood, and thence extracts his 



EYES AND MODES OF VISION. 113 

food. Some tribes of animals, as vinegar eels, having no 
moutli, seem to take their food by absorption. 

There is also a like variety in modes of vision. Some see 
through eyes, some without thep. And there is no stereo- 
typed fashion in the matter of eyes. In few things has Na- 
ture's love of variety been more capriciously displayed. Most 
animals have eyes which are so numerously supplied with 
delicate muscles that they may ^^k. on almost an infinite num- 
ber of points in more than half a hemisphere, without chang- 
ing the position of the head. Some have eyes in different 
parts of the body. One species of butterfly, and that by no 
means among the largest, is reported by the wise men of the 
microscope to have "nearly 35,000,000 eyes." These are dis- 
tributed over every part of the body, and thus, whatever may 
be the position of the insect, " no danger can approach unper- 
ceived, as a sentinel keeps watch in every quarter." 

Other insects, as the beetle, the silk-worm, and several 
kinds of flies, have two fixed eyes or protuberances, which are 
supplied, some with two, some with eight, some with a 
hundred or a thousand lenses^ which are capable of seeing in 
every direction. The whole surface of these protuberances, as 
seen in the fly, is covered with a multitude of small hemi- 
spheres, placed with the utmost regularity in rows, crossing 
each other in a kind of lattice-work. These little hemispheres 
have each of them a minute transparent convex lens in the 
middle, each of which has a distinct branch of the optic nerve 
ministering to it; so that the different lenses may be con- 
sidered as so many distinct eyes. Mr. Lewenhock counted 
6,236 in the two eyes of a silk-worm when in its fly state ; 
3,180 in each eye of the beetle ; 8,000 in the two eyes of a 



114 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

common fly, Mr. Hook reckoned 14,000 in the eyes of a drone 
fly^ and in one of the eyes of a dragon-fly there have been 
reckoned 13,500 of these lenses; in both eyes 27,000 ; every 
one of which is capable of forming a distinct image of any ob- 
ject, in the same manner as a common convex glass. There 
are 27,000 images formed on the retina of this little animah'^ 
Mr. Lewenhock having prepared the eye of a fly for the pur- 
pose, and so adjusted it in respect to his microscope that he 
could look through both, in the manner of a telescope, looked 
at the steeple of a church, which was 299 feet high, and 750 
distant. He could plainly see through every little lens the 
whole steeple inverted, though not larger than the point of a 
needle. When he directed it to a neighboring house, he saw 
not only the front, but the doors and the windows ; and could 
discern whether the windows were open or shut. " Such an 
exquisite piece of Divine mechanism transcends all human 
comprehension." 

Similar remarks might be made in respect to the teeth^ ears, 
noses, and snouts or bills of animals. Some have teeth both 
on the upper and lower jaw ; others only on the lower. In 
some each stands separate ; in others they stand continuous and 
united. Some teeth are straight, others hooked ; some slen- 
der and pointed for tearing, biting, or holding only ; others 
firm and blunt, for chewing and grinding. The palate of some 
fishes is nothing else than a bony plate studded with points 
which perform the office of teeth. 

And more curiously varied yet would be the portraits of the 
ears and noses of every species of animal. But to pass that singu- 
lar appendage called the ear, wondering how it were possible 

* Dick's Christian Philosopher, pp. 80, 81. 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS. 115 

there could be so many distinct patterns of one and the same 
thing, we wilt pause a moment at that anterior extremity of the 
animal called the nose, snout, or bill. And what an endless 
variety in shape, structure and use. There is the proboscis of 
the elephant ; the snout of a certain fish ; the rooter of the 
swine ; the peculiar bill of the stork ; the spoon of one bird and 
the drill of another. And so we might go through the whole 
catalogue of beasts, birds, fish and insects ; we should recog- 
nize in this curious variety, the wise and benevolent provisions 
by which every species of animal is fitted to its place and 
mode of life. 

The same benevolent arrangement appears again in the di- 
versified predilections of different animals for different kinds 
of food and difierent modes of life. Perhaps there is not a 
substance, either vegetable or animal, dead or alive, which does 
not serve as food for some species of animals. Every kind of 
flesh, fish, fowl and insect, is peculiarly adapted to the taste of 
some animal. Even what is poison to one is food for another. 
What is avoided and rejected by one is sought and eagerly de- 
voured by another. Some carnivorous animals will feed on 
nothing but dead carcasses ; others select some particular part 
of the fresh carcass ; others will appropriate no part but the 
blood. Infinitely diversified as are the productions of vegeta- 
ble nature, there is probably not a grain, fruit, leaf, grass or 
plant, which is not adapted to meet some animal want. And 
so we may say of all kinds of flesh. There is no such thing 
as a useless order of beings, whether herb, insect or larger an- 
imal. Each has its place and use in the great system of life 
and activity — though it be the most noisome insect or the bit- 
terest herb. Strike one from existence and you have not only 



116 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

mutilated the great machine, but you have annihilated a whole 
order of beings by annihilating its means of subsistence. And 
the annihilated order, serving, as it did, as the sustenance of 
another order, that is in turn annihilated ; and so on from or- 
der to order, till the whole vast series would at length disap- 
pear. 

Open the volume where you will, the wonders of Philoso- 
phy afford profuse examples of a character such as are adduced 
above. I quote the following : " The polypus, like the fabled 
hydra, receives new life from the knife which is lifted to de- 
stroy it. There are 4,041 muscles in a caterpillar. Hook dis- 
covered 14,000 mirrors in the eyes of a drone ; and to effect the 
respiration of a carp, 13,300 arteries, vessels, veins and bones, 
&c., are necessary. The body of every spider contains four lit- 
tle masses pierced with a multitude of imperceptible holes, each 
hole permitting the passage of a single thread ; all the threads, 
to the amount of a thousand to each mass, join together when 
they come out, and make the single thread with which the spider 
spins his web ; so that what we call a spider's thread consists 
of more than 4,000 united. Lewenhock, by means of micro- 
scopes, observed spiders no bigger than a grain of sand, which 
spun thread so fine that it took 4,000 of them to equal in mag- 
nitude a single hair." 

Again, we discover, as we allow the eye to pass over Na- 
ture's great Menagerie, curious varieties in modes of locGiaotlon, 
Some walk upright, some on two, four or more feet — some hop 
— some crawl. Others move by continued contortions of the 
body and spinal motions, propelling the body forward, as the 
serpent ; some move by elevating the centre of the body, draw- 
ing up the hinder part, and then protruding the forward part 



ORGANS OF LOCOMOTION. 117 

of the body. Some are rowed by fins ; others soar on their 
wings as borne on the air. Some roll as a wheel. Others, as 
the nautilus and the argonaut, are able to raise a sail and make 
the wind their locomotive power. Or the apparatus that at one 
time serves as a sail, may be gathered up and used as an oar. 

Dr. Nordmann, in his curious examinations of animalcula, 
speaks of one species which he discovered in the intestinal 
canal of a very singular little insect that infests the eye of the 
perch, as possessed of a very unique locomotive power. When 
separated from the membrane which inclosed them, they im- 
mediately turned round on their axis with great velocity, and 
then jumped a certain distance in a straight line, when they 
again revolved, and again took a second leap. 

The oyster, till recently supposed to be without the power 
of locomotion, manages to change locality, though at a very 
indifferent speed, by squirting water from his shell, by which 
means he agitates the water about him, and thus propels him- 
self forward. Another bivalve, the muscle, moves itself by a 
sort of tongue^ capable of contraction and elongation, and 
serves as an arm and a foot. The snail^ with his house on 
his back, moves on at a pace and in a manner peculiarly his 
own. 

And the organs of locomotion exhibit an equally interest- 
ing variety : legs of every shape and structure, and in all num- 
bers ; fins of every conceivable pattern ; and wings from the 
mere extension of the skin of the bat, or the flying-squirrel, to 
the long, perfect wings of the swallow, or of the noble eagle. 
Some animals are furnished with two legs, some with four, 
some with twenty, a hundred or a thousand. And some 
wend their way over the earth with great swiftness without 



118 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

legs. Some, as I have said, move over the face of the water 
by means of sails. 

There is a single instance of a species of insects called 
Molluscans, which have but one leg. But this one leg serves 
the purpose, too, of a hand ; which, at one time^ spins the fine 
silken thread by which it is attached to the rock, or it serves 
as an auger to bore the rock and prepare its lodgment there, 
or it is used for certain purposes as a trowel. Some animals 
are prepared with organs for climbing, others for burrowing, 
others for perforating trees for food or a habitation : or for 
ensnaring an enemy, or tearing to pieces a victim. 

The varied structure, uses and adaptations of legs^ is a 
curious affair. The legs of insects that swim are peculiarly 
fitted to it, either by being expanded somewhat like an oar, or 
by having a dense fringe of hair upon them. The water-boat- 
man swims on his back by means of singularly formed legs. 
The little whirligig swims by the help of his legs, which are 
paddle-shaped. Some insects, by means, it may be, of some 
peculiar secretion which repels water, are able to walk on its 
surface as readily as upon a solid substance. Another class 
have legs of so peculiar a structure that they can fold them 
upon each other and pack them into a very small surface. 
This is particularly the case in a species of woodlouse, which 
rolls itself up into a ball precisely resembling a bead or a pill. 
But the delusion is easily detected, as the girl learned, when 
having found in the garden, as she supposed, a large number 
of round, black, shining beads, streaked with white, undertook 
to form them into a necklace. The point of her needle soon 
brought out a protruding head, which quite spoiled the rotun- 
dity of the bead. 



THE MOTION OF ANIMALS. 119 

Indeed, we can scarcely contemplate a subject of more 
pleasing interest than tlie motions of animals — ^by what organs 
performed and to what end — and how varied. Now we see 
various species of living beings, hugely great and beautifully 
small, gliding through the waters, with an ease, rapidity and 
grace quite astonishing. Then we behold the bird of every 
wing, with equal ease and grace, sailing through the air ; as- 
cending above the clouds, or diving to the earth, or poising 
itself in mid-heaven — to say nothing of all the endlessly varied 
motions of all that creep or- walk or run upon the face of the 
earth, or under the earth. 

But our wonder is vastly increased when we attempt to 
enter the interior of one of these living machines, and examine 
the singularly varied arrangements and provisions by which 
these endlessly diversified motions of sentient beings are pro- 
duced. Every motion of every hand, foot, finger, joint, eye 
or tongue ; of every fin, wing, paddle or sail, is produced by 
its own peculiar set of joints, muscles and tendons, according to 
the species of the animal and the character of the action to be 
produced. Hundreds of muscles are employed in the motions 
of the eye alone. In moving it up or down, or to either side ; 
in dilating or contracting the pupil ; or adjusting the eye for 
a near or remote vision, different sets of muscles are employed : 
and so in all the various and peculiar motions of the fingers 
and wrists of the human body — or in the more delicate (and 
sometimes involuntary) motions of breathing, tasting and smell- 
ing. Every distinct motion has its peculiar organs. What 
forethought, contrivance and skill are displayed in this mat- 
ter of vital activity! "What nice calculations as to bones, 
nerves, muscles, tendons, joints, and all the varied apparatus 



120 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

which secures, or directly produces motion. We admire the 
genius that contrives, builds and successfully sets and keeps 
in motion a great and complicated piece of machinery. How 
many wheels, and bands, and wires ; cogs, coils, screws, pins, 
loops, and all sorts of appurtenances of all forms, sizes and 
uses, are combined to secure the successful working of the 
whole machine. 

But wh^t is this compared to the mechanism of an animal 
body, which secures, with perfect ease, and oftentimes by con- 
trivances inconceivably delicate, the ten thousand motions of 
the living machine. It is a "harp of a thousand strings." 
Strange that it keeps in tune so long. 

Again, as we look ever the great arena of animal existence, 
we discover a variety none the less interesting in modes and 
instruments of attack and defence. Among the more obvious 
and powerful weapons of warfare with which nature has fur- 
nished its creatures. We see horns, hoofs, antlers, teeth and claws. 
Bees, wasps, and some other insects are armed with a sting. 
The king of the feathered tribes smites his enemy with his 
wing. The monarch of the deep strikes with his tail. With 
this mighty weapon he might sink a ship. The king of the 
woods awes into obedience the tenants of the forest, or executes 
vengeance on his enemies, or siezes and tears his victims of 
prey, by means of claws and teeth. One kind of fish, called 
the sword-fish, is furnished with a weapon of defence or attack 
in a long sword-like snout. The cuttle-fish eludes the pursuit 
of his enemy, by enveloping himself with a black fluid which 
he has the power to emit from his mouth. Cattle when at- 
tacked by ^ bear or other rapacious beasts, will form a close 
phalanx and show a formidable array of horns. Under similar 



MODES OF DEFENCE. 121 

circumstances, horses will form a close line and give an enemy 
a broadside of lieels. 

Some animals, as the porcupine and hedgehog, are defend- 
ed by a singular coat of armor. They are armed on their sides 
and back with spines or quills, which prove formidable to dogs, 
wolves or any animal that should attempt to capture them. 
These animals, too, have the power to roll themselves up like 
a ball, and in this form they present a phalanx of spears which 
no animal will knowingly attack. 

The defence and security of some animals lie in their 
strength ; of others, in their swiftness ; of others, as the fox, 
in their cunning. Many seek protection by burrowing in the 
earth. Oysters, clams, and all the various species of shell-fish, 
are furnished with a hard, calcareous covering, within which 
they have the power to ensconce themselves and remain secure 
from every attack. The spider ingeniously weaves his web, 
and not only sits in the centre secure from harm, but entraps 
his unwary victim. The ant digs a hole in the sand and then 
conceals herself in the bottom till her prey falls in, and she 
devours it. Other animals have the power of slaying their prey 
by infusing a poison into their veins and producing almost in- 
stant death. 

But one of the most singular and effective modes of self- 
defence remains yet to be mentioned. It is that of the ]N"orth 
American skunk. This animal, when attacked, or threatened 
with danger, is able to discharge on its assailants, ''an intol- 
erable stifling stench," which is quite sure to give the assailant 
the worst of the battle. Perfectly confident in the potency of 
his munitions of war and feeling quite safe behind his intrench- 
ments, the skunk is one of the most fearless animals to be met. 
6 



122 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

So unsuspicious is he of danger, that he seems to invite attack , 
but woe to the assailant, man or beast, who dares to encounter 
the artillery of such a foe. Sometimes an inexperienced dog 
is seen to attempt to seize this formidable foe ; he finds him- 
self utterly discomfited, and runs away howling and endeavor- 
ing to thrust his nose into the ground. 

I had designed to make a more special reference to the 
feathered tribes. This department of Natural History is 
everywhere rich in beautiful varieties. You may trace them 
up, through a most charming succession, all the way from the 
exquisite little humming-bird to the heaven-daring eagle — note 
the songsters of the morning, not only as to size, form and 
plumage, but as to the diversified character and sweetness of 
their notes, as in the compass of their music they pass through 
two, and sometimes three octaves. And how they differ in 
sprightliness, beauty, and a thousand distinctive characteris- 
tics. You may traverse, and search every meadow, river, 
island and shore, till you have seen every bird of every wing, 
and you will but find Nature's love for variety yet more and 
more beautifully illustrated. 

" The feathered tribes form one of the most beautiful and 
striking features of creation. Their varied and often brilliant 
plumage, and infinite diversity of form and size and color, with 
their peculiar powers of flight, often accompanied with the 
precious gift of song, combine, with their habits, instincts and 
endearing associations, to render them objects of special in- 
terest." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Animal Kingdom— The Microscopic "World : Yariety of Temperament — Sagacity 
— Activity — Precocity — Productiveness— Migrations of Animals — ^Fishes. 

We have no need to stop at the boundary "beyond which the 
unassisted eye cannot reach. We may plunge deep as we will 
into that world of wonderful workmanship which the micro- 
scope alone reveals, and survey its boundless domains of ani- 
mal life, and we shall find that our principle will hold to the 
uttermost verge of microscopic vision. The same never-failing 
variety pervades all this exquisitely delicate workmanship. 

In the brief survey already made in the field of animated 
existence, we have had occasion to admire, not only the " mul- 
titudinous races " that people every element and clime, and all 
the ever-changing, ever-varied forms and natures which meet 
the eye in every region of animal life, but we had occasion to 
admire no less profoundly the endless profusion of living 
beings with which every object teems. Earth, air, water, is 
instinct with life. Vegetables, flowers and animals themselves, 
both dead and alive, supply habitations and food for their 
various tribes of living beings. " What profusion of being is 
displayed in the wide expanse of the ocean, through which are 
scattered such various and such unknown multitudes of ani- 
mals." And in the yet broader and deeper expanse of the 



124 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

atmosphere, what a boundless field of animal existence ; and 
how varied and multitudinous, from the kingly eagle down 
through every imaginable diversity of form, size, habits, char- 
acter and pursuits, to the minutest living speck that floats in 
the air. And if we traverse every region of the globe, " from 
the scorching sands of the equator to the icy realms of the 
poles, or from the lofty mountain summits to the dark abysses 
of the deep ; if we penetrate into the shades of the forest, or 
into the caverns and secret recesses of the earth ; nay, if we 
take up the minutest portion of stagnant water, we still meet 
with life in some new and unexpected form, yet ever adapted 
to the circumstances of its situation. Wherever life can be 
sustained, we find life produced. It would almost seem as if 
nature had been thus lavish and sportive in her productions 
with the intent to demonstrate to man the fertility of her re- 
sources, and the inexhaustible fund from which she has so pro- 
digally supplied the means requisite for the maintenance of 
all these diversified combinations, for their repetition in endless 
perpetuity, and for their subordination to one harmonious 
scheme of general good."'^ 

But the moment we pass the line which divides the visible 
from the invisible, and enter the domains of life revealed by 
the microscope, we find ourselves amid worlds before unknown. 
And nothing more astonishes us at the first discovery, than the 
strange profusion of life that now meets us at every turn. 
The microscope has here revealed worlds of wonders which a 
century ago were not suspected to exist. It is found that all 
things teem with life. "These less than the least of all 

* Roget's Bridge water Treatise. Vol. i., p. 25. 



MICEOSCOPIC TEIBES. 125 

the creatures " that are visible to the unassisted eye, inhabit 
the water, float in the air, are found in the blood and fluids of 
the body, in the tartar of the teeth, in animal and in vegetable 
substances, in vinegar and in paste, in fruits, grains, seeds and 
flowers ; in the dry sand, and on every green leaf. 

And not only are tribes of living beings found in the blood, 
the brain and the intestines of larger animals, but other tribes 
have been discovered to inhabit the eyes of different animals 
and the gills of fishes. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles and fishes 
have each their eye-worms. Dr. Nordmann, the German 
Naturalist already quoted, has made some very curious obser- 
vations here — more especially his discoveries in the eyes of 
different species of the perch. In a single eye of this fish 
he sometimes discovered as many as 360 of these animalcula. 
So numerous a family feed, revel and rest in the single eye of a 
little fish. Other tribes make their habitations on the gills 
of fishes. The little minute speck of life which the Doctor dis- 
covered on the gills of the bream were not the less remarkable 
in respect to number and size, but more wonderful in relation 
to form and structure. Among the varieties of shapes, colors 
and structures of these minim hosts, he mentions a very singu- 
lar one, to which he gives the name of Diplozoon, or double 
animal. Unlike the compound insects, which have several 
mouths protruding from one stem or body, giving it the ap- 
pearance of a vegetable growth (another connecting link), 
these double animals, like the Siamese twins, are formed of two 
distinct bodies, united in the middle, so as to present the ap- 
pearance of a St. Andrew's Cross, each half of the animal con- 
taining precisely the same organs. 

Nor does the series of life in this singular locality stop here. 



126 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

The same indefatigable observer has discovered that '' these 
little pests, small as they are, have parasites of their own." 
He observed ''little brown dots or capsules " attached to the 
intestinal canal, which, when opened, there issued forth living 
animalcula, which not only presented unique forms and struc- 
tures, but were singularly curious in their modes of locomotion. 
As already noticed, when speaking of the motions of animals, 
they, on being set at liberty from the membrane that contains 
them, immediately turn round on their axis, then jump a cer- 
tain distance in a straight line, when they again revolve and 
again take a leap. 

So replete indeed is every thing with this animalcula 
life as to have given rise to the theory that, in like manner as 
the earth and every inanimate thing is formed of an endless 
number of infinitely minute particles, so every animal organiza- 
tion is constituted of living atoms ; so minute indeed that mil- 
lions might graze on a single leaf or revel in a drop of water. 

But, as is known in reference to the magnitude of creation 
that no increased power of the telescope approaches any limit 
of creation in that direction, so, in relation to the other extreme, 
as, with microscope in hand, we plunge into the regions of in- 
visible minuteness, no investigations have indicated any limit 
of creative power here. As the astronomer, with every new 
power of his instrument, finds himself introduced into new 
fields of ether, all resplendent with worlds, and sees evidence 
that illimitable fields lie beyond the reach of every increased 
power of his telescope, equally, no doubt, the habitations of 
worlds as mighty and resplendent as those within the range 
of his vision, so the practical naturalist informs us, that with 
every improvement of his microscope he is introduced into new 



WONDEES OF THE MICROSCOPE. 127 

fields of life, and discovers new wonders of living minuteness; 
and still " those that defy all present methods of assisting the 
sight and consequently remain undetected, may far exceed 
those we know." And the same writer supposes these minim 
animals out-number, " beyond all statement of numbers," the 
whole aggregate of all the other animals that people the globe — 
that they '' probably enter into us, circulate in our blood, nestle 
between our teeth, are everywhere busy," but they remained 
hidden from all human observation till the invention of the 
microscope raised the veil and introduced us to these new 
worlds of wonders. 

But we are not at present so much concerned with either 
the profusion of created things, or with the minuteness and 
the exquisitively beautiful workmanship of the Divine hand, as 
we are with the strange!]/ diversified character of these works. 
Of this we seem to have illustrations more and more profuse 
and beautiful, as we descend from the less to the more minute. 
The enthusiasm of naturalists, as they enter these enchanting 
fields, would lead us to suppose that all we have seen of variety 
in the larger types of animal life, as already referred to, afford, at 
best, but meagre specimens, compared with those furnished by 
the teeming millions of insects and animalcula which inhabit 
the crust of the earth, or by the creeping things of the ocean. 
These present a variety surpassing all our powers of conception 
— if regard be had only to color, size and form. But if all 
the marked diversities of adaptations, uses of parts, dispositions 
and activities be admitted in tothe account, the field is vastly 
widened. Astonishing discoveries have been made among the 
innumerable worlds of animalcula and ephemeral insects. Thou- 
sands have been discovered in a single drop of water, and tens 



128 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of thousands on a single leaf. Each is a world teeming with 
its own population. But what more excites our admiration is 
that all its puny tribes are distinguished by even a greater 
variety, if possible, than characterizes all other material things. 

An ingenious naturalist gives the following result of his ex- 
amination of a single strawberry plant : " The insects which I 
observed, were all distinguishable from each other, by their 
color, their forms and their motions. Some of them shone like 
gold, others were of the color of silver or brass. Some were 
spotted, some striped ; they were blue, green, brown and chest- 
nut. The heads of some were round like a turban ; those of 
others were drawn out in the figure of a cone ; here it was dark 
as a tuft of black velvet, there it sparkled like a ruby." The 
wings of some, he says, were "long and brilliant, like trans- 
parent plates of mother-of-pearl;" others, "short and broad, 
resembling net-work of the gauze." 

Such may be taken as a specimen of the variegated inhab- 
itants of those diminutive worlds, which, on account of their 
extreme minuteness, elude the naked vision of man. 

Another ingenious observer, as he contemplates " the amaz- 
ing varieties" of the microscopic world, says of the strangely 
diminutive forms of life which pass within the vision of his in- 
strument : '•' One is a long and slender line ; another, an eel 
or a serpent ; some are circular, eliptical or triangular ; one is a 
thin, flat plate ; another, like a number of reticulated seeds ; 
several have a long tail, almost invisible, or their posterior 
part is terminated by two robust horns ; one is like a funnel ; 
another like a bell, or cannot be referred to any object fcirailiar 
to our senses." Other singular peculiarities are also described. 
Some of these minims of life possess the most wonderful con- 



MOTIONS OF ANIMALS. 129 

trol over their own size and forms. Some can change their 
figure at pleasure. They may extend themselves to an immod- 
erate length, and then contract to almost nothing. Now they 
are seen curved like a leech, then coiled like a serpent ; now 
inflated much beyond its usual bulk, then flaccid and almost 
vanished. Some are opaque, while others are so transparent 
as to be scarcely visible. 

And the motions of these wonderful tribes, present varie- 
ties not the less interesting. Some are said to swim with the 
velocity of an arrow ; others drag their bodies with seeming 
diflBculty, and some seem to exist in perfect rest. One is seen 
to revolve on its centre, or the exterior part of its head ; others 
move '' by undulations, leaps, oscillations or successive gyra- 
tions." Indeed, it is affirmed that there is no kind of animal 
motion, or mode of progression that is not practised by ani- 
malcula. 

We may indulge a moment's glance at another of these in- 
visible worlds of beauty and variety — a world circumscribed 
within the limits of a single carnation, as laid open by the 
microscope and described by the pen of Sir John Hill. Dis- 
tending the lower part of the flower, and, under a full light, 
adapting his microscope to take in, at one view, the whole base 
of the flower, he discovered "troops of little insects frisking 
with wild jollity among the narrow pedestals that supported 
its leaves, and the little threads that occupied its centre. The 
base of the flower had become a vast plain ; the slender stems 
of leaves become trunks of so many stately cedars ; the threads 
in the middle seemed columns of massy structure, supporting, 
at their top, their several ornaments ; and the narrow spaces 
between were enlarged into walks, parterres and terraces. On 



130 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

the polished bottoms of these, brighter than Parian marble, 
walked in pairs, alone, or in larger companies, the winged in- 
habitants. These, from ^ttle dusky flies (as seen by the naked 
eye) were raised to glorious, glittering animals, stained with 
living purple, and with a glossy gold that would have made all 
the labors of the loom contemptible in the comparison. '^ I 
could, at leisure, admire their limbs, their velvet shoulders, and 
their silver wings ; their backs vying with the empyreal in its 
blue ; and their eyes, each formed of a thousand others, out- 
glittering the little planes on a brilliant ; above description, 
and almost too great for admiration." 

Such pictures, to those not accustomed to look into those 
worlds of wonder through the microscope, may seem overdrawn. 
We are assured, however, by those who are in the habit of 
making such investigations, that the vegetable and animal world 
are full of just such scenes. And as world after world of these 
microscopic wonders pass in review before us, we know not 
which the most ' profoundly to admire, the power, skill and 
wisdom engaged in the creation, arrangement and control of 
the numberless an,d immense worlds that fill boundless space, 
or the beauty and exquisitely delicate workmanship of the in- 
finitesimal tribes that inhabit the microscopic worlds. 

We may institute no comparison between the most fin- 
ished and delicate works of art and the common works of 
nature. ISTo hand can paint like the hand divine — no colors 
are so brilliant and indelible — no texture so fine — no work- 
manship so exquisite. As we descend the scale into those 
wonderful worlds revealed by the microscope, we seem im- 
pressed with the idea that the God of nature has undertaken 
to exhaust his skill and power jn the production of an endless 



STRUCTUKE OF INSECTS. 131 

number and variety of infinitely small creations. As in point 
of duration God is from everlasting to everlasting, so in refer- 
ence to power, wisdom and skill in workmanship, he works 
from infinite to infinite — the vastness of the material universe 
on the one hand stands over against the infinite variety and 
the endless profusion and the infinitesimal minuteness of his 
works on the other. 

The moment we descend to details we are, in this respect, 
astonished at the investigations of the naturalist. There ap- 
pears an exuberance of skill and workmanship which we were 
not prepared for. In confirmation of this we can scarcely 
quote the annals of natural history amiss. We may take the 
following : In the body of an insect about an inch in length, a 
French naturalist is said to have enumerated 306 plates com- 
posing the structure only of the outer envelop ; 494 muscles 
for putting them in motion ; 24 pairs of nerves and 48 pairs 
of breathing organs. On a single wing of a butterfly have 
been found 100,000 scales. So thin are the wings of many 
insects that 50,000 placed over each other would only be a 
quarter of an inch thick ; and yet, thin as they are, each is 
double. The house-fly's wing has a power of 600 strokes in 
a second, which can propel it 35 feet, while the speed of a 
race-horse is but 90 feet a second. We well know what an 
exquisite piece of mechanism the eye is ; and as two eyes seem 
quite sufiicient for all the necessary purposes of vision, we are 
quite astonished to meet with small and insignificant insects 
with thousands of eyes, or rather, the protuberances called 
their eyes are found to contain thousands of lenses, every one 
of which is capable of producing a distinct image of as many 
objects at the same time. Why should the silk- worm, the 



132 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

beetle, and the common fly have their six or eight thousand 
eyes ; and the drone, the dragon and the butterfly more than 
twice as many *? — why but for the love of infinite skill and 
power to extend itself? As in the works of grace, so in the 
w^orks of nature there is a strange outflowing and overflowing 
of the Divine goodness. 

We are amazed at the exuberance of the skill of workman- 
ship displayed in some of these specks of life. But we have 
no need to dwell on the minute, nor to confine our remarks to 
variety in form, size or structure. There is among animals a 
no less striking variety of temperament^ sagacity^ activity^ pre- 
cocity and productiveness. How varied the natural disposi- 
tions of animals. Compare the tiger and the lamb ; the vul- 
ture and the dove ; the serpent and the fish. No two animals 
are tempered alike — not to say animals of different species^ but 
individuals of the same species. How kind and pacific are 
some ; how restive, fierce and refractory are others ! But the 
distinction is more prominently marked in the creature man — 
at least it is more observable in him. Here no two are attem- 
pered alike. Some seem to have a similar disposition in some 
particulars, while in other respects they are totally unlike. 
They run parallel to a certain point, whence they diverge and 
perhaps do not meet again. 

^Animals differ no less remarkably in respect to intelligence^ 
sagacity^ ingenuity and skill. From the lowest grade of zoo- 
phytes or vegetable animals to the highest in the scale of in- 
telligence there is every imaginable variety. It will serve our 
purpose quite as well to refer only to some of the higher orders, 
and those more familiar to the common reader. 

What varied skill and ingenuity are employed by diflferent 



ARCHITECTUBAL SKILL OF ANIMALS. 133 

species of birds in the construction of their nests, and by dif- 
ferent animals in forming tlieir habitations. No two species 
of animals, birds or insects construct their nests or build their 
habitations of the same material, or in the same form, or after 
the same order of architecture. Though all mechanics of some 
craft, no two species are of the same craft. Some play the 
carpenter, some the mason or the woodcutter, miner or com- 
mon laborer. The wasjp is both a papermaker and a mason, 
and, at the same time, like the honey-bee, an excellent geome- 
trician and builder. Thin and frail as the paper layer of the 
wasp's nest is, it is constructed in a manner and of a material 
to make it water-proof. 

But more remarkable still is the architectural skill and 
power of some kinds of ants, especially those called termites or 
white ants. These diminutive insects erect habitations which 
for dimensions and internal structure are quite wonderful. 
They show themselves well skilled in masonry — understand 
the construction of the arch, and know how to form a cement 
and mortar which is perfectly secure against all injury by 
water. 

The ant-hill is a pyramid often ten or twelve feet high, the 
external covering consisting of a dome, '' with a smooth sur- 
face of rich clay, excessively hard and well built." The inte- 
rior of the building, which is fitted up with great labor and 
skill, is divided "• with wonderful artifice and regularity into a 
vast number of apartments" — labyrinths, galleries and subter- 
raneous passages. In the centre and under the grand dome 
are the royal apartments, and about these nurseries, maga- 
zines for provisions, and various chambers for the accommoda- 
tions of their gentry, soldiers, and difierent sorts of laborers. 



134 THE PAI.ACE OF THE GEEAT KI:N"G. 

Some one has pleasantly illustrated the various skill and 
aptitudes of different animals by characterizing their trades 
and mechanical operations somewhat as follows : 

'' Beasts, birds and insects are good mechanics, skilled in 
business and building operations ; and what they do is done 
with despatch and neatness. The caterpillar is a silk-spinner, 
far excelling any other in his line of business. Indeed, we 
could by no skill or art of ours supply the place of this won- 
derfully-endowed creature. The honey-bee is a professor of 
geometry. He constructs his cell so scientifically that the least 
possible amount of material is formed into the largest spaces 
with the least waste of room, Not all the mathematicians of 
Cambridge could improve the construction of his cells. 'Eov 
can the best hermetical sealers preserve provisions so well. 

" The mole tunnels like a skilful engineer. The nautilus 
is a navigator, hoisting or taking in sail as he goes, or casting 
anchor at pleasure. The glow-worm is a lamplighter. The 
beaver is a wood-cutter, or builder, and a mason ; and a good 
workman at all these trades. He fells trees with his teeth, 
and, having built his house skilfully, plasters it with his tail- 
trowel. The swallow is a fly-catcher — singing birds are ama- 
teur musicians, excelling in harmony ; and the otter and heron 
are fishermen, though they use neither line nor net. The 
otter we seldom see, for he works his traps mostly under the 
water ; but the heron may be often seen standing with his 
long, thin legs in the shallow part of the stream, suddenly 
plunging his long bill below the surface and bringing up a 
fish. The marmot is a civil engineer. He does not only 
build houses, but constructs aqueducts and drains to keep 
them dry. The ant maintains a regular standing army. 



SAGACITY OF DIFFEEENT CLASSES. 135 

Wasps are paper manufacturers. Caterpillars are silk-spin- 
ners. The squirrel is a ferryman. With a chip or piece of 
bark for a boat, and his tail for a sail, he crosses a stream. 
Dogs, wolves, jackals and many others, are hunters. The 
black bear and heron are fishermen. The ants are day- 
laborers. The monkey is a rope-dancer. 

" The fox is a dealer in poultry, and sometimes a whole- 
sale dealer ; as the farmers and farmers' wives know to their 
cost. Not satisfied with chickens and ducklings, he must 
needs push on his trade among the full grown cocks and hens ; 
and many a good fat goose is carried to his meat-cellar. 

* A wily trader in his way 
Is Eeynard, both by night and day.' " 

Other classes of animals show much sagacity in the pre- 
cautions they use against danger. Among these are the 
marmot, the monkey of Brazil, and the wild horse. When 
grazing, or sleeping, or engaged in pastimes, they are known to 
place a sentinel to watch and give alarm against approaching 
danger. When the marmot sentinel perceives a man, an 
eagle, a dog, or any other foe near, he alarms his companions 
by a loud whistle, and is himself the last that enters the hole. 
Brazil monkeys are said quietly to sleep on the trees after 
having stationed one of their number as a sentinel to warn 
them of the approach of the tiger, or other rapacious animal ; 
and if this sentinel is found sleeping, his companions in- 
stantly tear him in pieces for his neglect of duty. And the 
same precautions are taken by troops of wild horses when 
sleeping. One of their number remains awake, and gives 
notice of any approaching danger. 



136 ^'HE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

We must be content with a single instance of the many we 
would like to quote, of the peculiar sagacity used by some 
classes of animals to entrap their prey. In Kamtschatka, an 
animal called the glotton employs a singular stratagem for 
killing the fallow-deer. He climbs up a tree, carrying with 
him a quantity of that species of moss of which the deer are 
very fond. When a deer approaches near the tree, the glotton 
throws down the moss. If the deer stops to eat the moss the 
glotton instantly darts down upon his back, and after fixing 
himself firmly between the horns, tears out its eyes, which so 
torments the animal, that, either to put an end to its torment 
or to get rid of its cruel enemy, it strikes its head against the 
trees till it falls down dead. The glottons on the river Lena 
sometimes kill horses in the same manner."^ 

The honey-bee is in many respects particularly a clever 
little animal. Both her social and civil relations abundantly 
imply this. Bees preserve a very perfect community, and main- 
tain a no less remarkable form of government. And the skill 
with which they conduct their labors is proverbial. But nothing 
is more remarkable than the sagacity they show in discerning 
any approaching change of the weather. " More surely than 
the instruments of science" they descry the shower at hand, 
and hasten to the shelter of their home. 

No animal, perhaps, has been awarded more credit for 
sagacity than the dog. He is capable of almost any training, 
and sometimes seems to dispute the province of rationality 
with man. To the many clever feats which are constantly 
detailed of this sagacious animal, the following, which recently 

* Sracllio's Philosophy of Natural History, p. 239. 



QUANTITY OF LITE. 13? 

came to my notice, may be added : Mr. Meriam, the celebrated 
meteorologist of Brooklyn, recently lost a valuable dog by 
death which he had taught to watch the striking of the clock 
at night, and wake him every hour for the purpose of making 
his hourly registrations of the barometer and thermometer. 

Again, we discover in the quantity of life or activity of 
different species of animals or animals of the same species, 
another pleasant variety. The lowest animal matter is scarcely 
distinguishable from a vegetable mass. And after ascending 
several grades you still meet with animals of perfect organiza- 
tion, yet with scarcely vital energy or the principle of life 
enough to enable them to move from place to place. With 
little nerve or muscle, strength or activity, and capable of very 
little pleasure or pain, they have scarcely more than a vege- 
table existence ; while sporting about them in all the smiling 
exuberance of vitality, are other tribes of animals, which live 
more in twenty-four hours than their sluggish, torpid neighbors 
do in a month. They use so much more nerve and muscle — 
enjoy or suffer so much more — burn in the lamp of life so 
much more of the oil of vitality. How much more of life is 
there about a tiger than a turtle — a humming-bird than a snail? 
M. Delisle tells us that he observed a fly not larger than a 
grain of sand, which ran three inches in half a second, and in 
that space made the enormous number of 540 steps. If a man 
were able to walk as fast in proportion to his size — i. e., able 
to take as many steps of two feet long in the same time, he 
would in the course of a minute run more than twenty miles, 
leaving express railroad engines far in his rear. The locust, 
the grasshopper and the flea can leap 200 times their lengtli ; 
the frog hops 250 times his length. Some spiders can leap 



138 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

upon their prey two feet. Were a man of six feet in length to 
leap in proportion to the grasshopper, he might be seen strid- 
ing over the earth at the rate of 400 yards at a stride. 

Similar remarks apply to individuals of the same grade or 
species. What different degree of vital energy in two animals 
of the same class. One is so sluggish as to feel it a task to 
gather his own food ; the other abounds in vitality, and leaps 
about spontaneously for no other reason than the pleasure of 
distending and contracting his own muscles. 

Man^ however, supplies the happiest illustration of this 
sort, for he is a mental and moral, as well as a physical being. 
Some persons have so little life about them as to be scarcely 
capable of self-preservation. When they have put forth the 
utmost stretch of their vitality, they can with difficulty perform 
acts which rank them among the living. This is one extreme, 
between which and the other there are many gradations or 
varieties, some putting forth more activity, accomplishing 
more labor — physical, mental or moral — in one day than 
others do in six. The mental energy of some men and the 
bodily vigor of others is prodigious, while the current of the 
vital energy runs so sluggishly in others that nothing moves 
them but compulsion, and this only while the coercive force is 
operative. Perhaps in nothing do men differ more than in the 
quantity of life which they possess. 

The diversified condition of animal life, in its infmicy^ is 
worthy of remark. In some instances, as in the young of the 
robin, the sparrow or the human infant, there is scarcely more 
than life in the abstract, vigor, activity and intelligence being 
scarcely at all developed, and these are not all capable of self- 
preservation. Of this extreme, naturalists furnish more striking 



PRODUCTIVENESS OF ANIMALS. 139 

illustrations that I have yet adduced. The American opossum 
is said often to produce sixteen young ones in one litter, which, 
when first born, do not weigh more than a grain each. Blind 
and almost shapeless, and perfectly helpless, they are now 
snugly stored away by the mother in a sort oi pouch provided 
by nature for the purpose, where they are nourished till they 
attain the size of a mouse, which does not take place till they 
are fifty days old, when they begin to see. And it is some 
time after this before they wholly leave the pouch. The kan- 
garoo^ and the houla of New Holland, nourish their young in 
the same way. 

On the other hand, we meet the young partridge, the ofi- 
spring of the domestic fowl, and the foal of the horse, with their 
instincts and activities almost perfectly developed at a day old. 
The young partridge will not wait to divest itself of the incum- 
bent shell before it seeks safety by flight, at the approach of 
danger. 

Again, there is a striking difference in the productiveness, 
and in the length of life of different species of animals. In- 
deed, productiveness is somewhat in proportion to length of 
life and to size. The elephant may live 2, 3, and 400 years. 
Other tribes of animals are ephemeral — others flit through life 
in one hour — perhaps in a few moments. 

In six years a pair of elephants might double their num- 
ber — a pair of sheep become 64 — and a pair of pigs 119, 160. 
The power of production in some of the smaller animals, 
especially of the finny tribe, verges on the incredulous. Natu- 
ralists tell us of the tench, the codfish, the shad, the house- 
fly, producing their hundred thousands — some, their millions 
yearly. 



140 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

bo prodigiously prolific are herring^ pilchard and some 
other kinds of fish, that they are taken by the millions of mil- 
lions annually, without the least sensible diminution of the 
supply. Twenty millions have been known to be taken at a 
single fishing. At a fishing-ground in Norway (Gottenburg) 
700,000,000 have been taken in a single year. And this is 
but an item in the amount taken by the English, Dutch and 
other European nations. 

But why such endless variety in animal life — why such ex- 
haustless abundance ? It is the provision which a benevolent 
Father has made for his creatures — especially for his creature 
man. What varied and superabundant provision for his food, 
his clothing, and for every possible want! But man would 
fail to realize the richness and fulness of these provisions, if 
his own skill and power, together with the instincts of certain 
animals, were not engaged to bring the various bounties of 
Providence to every man's door. But for commerce on the one 
hand, and the migrations of certain animals and fishes on the 
other, our supplies would still be comparatively limited. As 
an example of the latter, take the herring, the shad and vari- 
ous kinds of fishes, to say nothing of migrating birds and 
beasts, which, at certain seasons of the year, feel an- irrepressi- 
ble prompting to take up their line of march and to pass over 
large portions of country, everywhere made a prey, to minister 
to the wants of man and beast. 

Our most abundant and valuable fish are the cod, the 
mackerel, the herring, the shad and haddock. These are 
all migratory fish. Impelled by a singular instinct, they are 
made to move forward in countless numbers, visiting the 
phores of various islands and continents, and offering them- 



MIGRATIONS AND THEIR USE. 141 

selves, as it were, in vast holocausts to the appetite of man. 
By means of this singular providential arrangement, immense 
quantities of food, delightfully variegating our bill of fare, are, 
at different seasons of the year, poured into our markets and 
introduced to our tables, v^hich ordinary commerce could never 
bring. One of these vast migrating bodies after another pass 
along our coasts or ascend our rivers, linger for days, for weeks, 
perhaps, till they have regaled us with a pleasant ^iariety, if 
not satiated our appetites ; then they move on unconsciously 
but liberally, to serve the equally rapacious appetites of some 
other shore. 

The migrating shoals of herring "consist of millions of 
myriads, and are many leagues in width, many fathoms in 
thickness, and so dense that the fishes touch each other." 

How truly wonderful are these great migratory expeditions, 
w^hen contemplated simply as a providential device for dis- 
tributing the bounties of Heaven to the different portions of 
his great family, not only supplying their wants, but spread- 
ing their tables with new and choice varieties. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MAN—His'fpliysical Yarieties— External Eorm— Color of Skin-— Mechanism— The eye 
—Organs for Breathing; Digestion, Secretion; Nerves, Blood-vessels— Yoice— 
Upright Position— The Wrist and Hand— Jenny Lind's Yoice. 

We are now brought to a portion of our illustration which is 
both more familiar, and of higher interest. Man is not an 
exception to the universal variety which pervades all nature 
besides. While we met no lack of diversified workmanship 
or varied development in the lower grades of animal life, we 
may be sure of meeting more numerous and interesting va- 
rieties in the species, man. We have not found our interest 
decrease as we have descended from the larger and better 
known specimens of creative power and skill, to the most mi- 
nute and the less known. The great monarch of the deep, 
whose play-ground is the ocean, is not more perfectly formed 
than the animalcule whose ocean is a drop of water. And the 
huge elephant does not exhibit a mechanism more highly 
wrought and admirable than the little tenant that sports un- 
seen in the tiny flower. 

As we pass into the domains of man we shall meet with 
illustrations yet more to be admired. For, of all animals, man 
is the most extraordinary, and furnishes the happiest illustra- 
tions of our theme. 

In proportion as the endowments of man exceed those of 



MAN AS A PHYSICAL BEIIS'G. 143 

any other animal, and liis relations are more extensive, and his 
duties more varied, and his moral wants and destinies of higher 
order, and as his needful training for his future state of being, 
implies exercises on his part and dispensations on the part of 
Providence very different from any thing known among the 
inferior races, in the same proportion we shall find man's his- 
tory to he vastly more diversified in all its developments. 

Man has not only a physical nature, more curious and 
complicated and variegated than any other animal, but he has 
an intellectual and a moral nature, which presents varieties of 
structure and endowments yet more interesting. 

We shall take occasion to make each of these aspects of 
humanity topics of illustration. The first and most obvious 
view we can take is to consider man as a physical being. The 
most superficial glance is enough to indicate the field of illus- 
tration here open before us. What disparity in stature, in 
muscular development and in bodily organization. What 
variety in color, in tones of voice, in the contour of the face 
and the expression of the countenance : and how varied the 
general appearance, the gait and movements. 

I spoke of color : the hue of the skin varies very nearly 
according to position on the globe; climate, elevation, soil, 
winds, temperature and exposure to heat, (natural or artificial,) 
food, habits, employments, have great influence in determining 
the color of the skin. Natural causes, of themselves, if given 
a sufiicient time to act, seem quite adequate to produce the 
difference which exists. Widely as the African dififers in his 
character from the European, we can conceive, from what we 
know, of similar changes produced in other races of men, 
when subjected to similar influences, during comparatively 



144 THE Pi^LACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

short periods of time ; of differences quite as striking as we 
meet here. Portuguese and Jews are found on the Malabar 
coast of India quite as black as the native Hindoos, though 
the former have been residents there scarcely more than three 
centuries. They have neither the thick lips, nor the crisped 
hair, nor the facial contour of the negro; yet these peculi- 
arities of the negro, did the field admit of the needful investi- 
gation, would probably be found to be no more than legitimate 
effects of peculiarities of an African climate, soil, temperature 
and productions. 

How unlike in a thousand respects are the different races 
of man ! The Caucasian from the Malay or Chinese — the 
African from the European ! Place by the side of the giant 
Patagonian the dwarf of Terra del Fuego, or the fair Briton by 
the side of the crisp-haired and thick-lipped African. But we 
shall find our subject amply illustrated if we confine ourselves 
to the same race. We can scarcely select examples amiss. 

We will first look for a moment at the framework — the 
machine itself — of the wonderful structure of the human body. 
In many of its leading features it does not essentially differ 
from the organization of other species of animals. Like them 
it has flesh, bones and joints, and systems of nerves and blood- 
vessels. There is in all the properly-formed animals the most 
ingenious specimens of machinery ; bones have their joints and 
hinges ; blood-vessels their valves ; the heart its forcing pump ; 
the eyes their pulleys. It cannot but excite our amazement 
that a framework of so small dimensions as that of the human 
body should contain so much machinery ; that so many dif- 
ferent sorts of apparatus should, in so small a compass, be able 
to produce so many different ends. We not only meet with 



THE FEAMEWOEK OF MAN. 145 

hinges, joints, valves, the forcing pump and the pulley, but in 
the same frame we discover a most ingeniously contrived and 
constructed system of blood-vessels, and another system of 
nerves, and a third of secretive organs, all in the same body ; 
then a complete and ingeniously contrived digestive and nu- 
tritive apparatus ; then a no less wonderful apparatus for 
respiration ; and finally, the yet more mysterious and delicate 
organs and capabilities of seeing, tasting, smelling, touching 
and feeling ; all of which systems presuppose different sets of 
muscles, nerves, and other appliances more delicate and skil- 
ful than we can possibly conceive. 

" How complicate, how wonderful is man !" 

And what in these respects is true of man, is found to be 
true of an insect a thousand times less than man. 

"We cannot too profoundly admire these wise arrangements 
of our beneficent Creator. A mere glance at a few well 
known anatomical facts will serve further to illustrate the 
varied skill, the diversified workmanship, and the profuse 
benevolence which appear in the mechanism of the human 
frame. The support of this framework consists of 245 bones 
of various forms and uses, and all adapted to their respective 
purposes. Each bone has not less than forty distinct scopes or 
intentions. Variously attached to these bones are 446 muscles, 
by which the numberless motions of the body are produced ; 
the same muscle, by means of its several intentions, producing 
as many different motions; and each standing ready every 
moment to receive the mandates of the will and to execute its 
appropriate function. " Every breath we draw, whether we be 
in motion or at rest, asleep or awake, a hundred muscles, at 
7 



146 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

least, are in constant action. In the act of breathing we re- 
spire at least twenty times every minute ; the heart exerts its 
muscular force in propelling the blood into the arteries sixty 
times every minute ; the stomach and abdominal muscles are 
every moment in action ; and the curious little bones of the 
ear are ever ready to convey sensations of the softest whisper 
to the brain. So that, without a hyperbole, or the least ex- 
travagance of expression, it may truly and literally be said, 
that we enjoy a thousand blessings every minute^ and conse- 
quently sixty thousand every hour, and one million four hun- 
dred and forty thousand every day."* 

Contemplated, simply as a complicated and delicate piece 
of machinery, the corporeal part of man is a matter of ceaseless 
wonder. The contrivance of the whole ; the forethought and 
calculations needful to the construction of such a machine ; 
the multiplicity and variety of the parts ; all made so beauti- 
fully to fit and harmonize as to subserve purposes equally 
numerous and varied ; and the exceeding delicacy of some of 
the parts exhibiting a skill and niceness of finish which as far 
transcends all human skill as the infinite is removed from the 
finite ; these are some of the wonders which appear in man's 
earthly tabernacle. 

What we are accustomed to call the human system is a 
series of distinct systems, each one perfect and independent in 
itself, yet acting in such perfect harmony with every other as 
to seem but a unit. At the same instant we find ourselves, 
almost without an effort, exercising all the complicated and 
varied organs needful to produce sight, hearing, smelling, the 

* Dick's PliilosopLy of Religion, p. 43, Am. edition. 



THE STEUCTUKE OF THE EYE. 147 

sensations of taste and touch, breathing, and I know not how 
many more interesting and curious functions. And so skil- 
fully contrived and collocated are the multiplicity of bones, 
muscles, nerves, tendons and membranes requisite to the per- 
formance of these functions, that they are constantly performed, 
and many, and sometimes all of them at the instant, without 
the slightest confusion ; and the whole may pass as the 
most commonplace occurrence, without a thought, or even con- 
sciousness on our part. But the moment attention is directed 
to the apparatus and the modus operandi^ the means and the 
manner of either of these very common operation s^i we are not 
a little amazed at the ingenuity and benevolence therein dis- 
played. 

Before the image of a simple object can be painted on the 
retina of the eye and the object be seen, what a singular piece 
of machinery has to be constructed, and then by how many in- 
genious contrivances it is made to perform its office. 

The eye has been justly esteemed the master-piece of me- 
chanical skill. It is a little ball lying easily in its soft, oily 
bed, and safely esconced in its bony cavity, so supported by 
muscles as readily to retain its position, yet to turn in every 
direction. It it composed of different coats, humors, and 
lenses, and supplied with an endless number of minute nerves, 
veins and arteries, lymphatics, glands and other delicate con- 
trivances — all so formed and adjusted as to admit, through a 
small aperture called the pupil, the countless millions of rays 
of light which proceed from the object viewed. So perfect is 
this little piece of machinery, that the rays of light from every 
point of every object in a landscape, miles in extent, enter the 
pupil of the eye all at precisely the same instant — are re- 



148 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

fracted by the humors — converge on the retina (which is but 
an expansion of the optic nerve) where the image is formed, 
and all at the selfsame instant a picture of the object thus is 
conveyed to the brain ; that is, an act of seeing is performed. 

And so perfect is the machinery that the eye passes from 
one object to another — from one broad landscape to another, 
and instantaneously and without the least perceptible effort — 
except simply moving the eye — excludes the existing image on 
the retina and the millions of rays which form it and admit as 
many more from the new series of objects, and by the same 
interesting process, paints a new picture. 

But the most extraordinary part of the whole, is the me- 
chanical arrangement — so subtle indeed as to elude the sight 
of the keenest research — ^by which the eye can instantly change 
from the sight of a distant object to that of one near. In other 
words, how the eye instantly adjusts itself to act as a telescope, 
or as a microscope. This is probably effected by some exqui- 
sitely delicate machinery, which renders more or less convex the 
cornea of the eye, as a near or remote object is to be viewed. 
Yet the moment we attempt to gain a conception of the appa- 
ratus by which such an optical phenomenon can be produced, 
we find ourselves at our wit's end. 

Wonderful as is the act, and as complicated and exquisitely 
nice as is the machinery which produces vision, this is but one 
of the many mechanical processes which are constantly, and at 
the same instant, going on in the human frame. The exer- 
cise of the other four senses, the act of breathing, of digestion, 
of nutrition, the process of secretion, the circulation of the 
blood, and the mysterious workings of the nervous energy, all 
have a distinct series of apparatus, and their independent ope- 



WHENCE MAN'S PRE-EMINENCE? 14.9 

rations. And the greater portion of the machinery by which 
each of these operations are carried on, is too minute and sub- 
tle to come within the cognizance of the acutest human skill. 
We can form no adequate conception of the profuse and varied 
workmanship involved. 

And not only so, but there are other provisions and adap- 
tations equally wonderful, before one of these results can be 
realized. An ear, no matter how curiously wrought, not adapt- 
ed to catch the sound from the vibrations of the external air, 
or an apparatus for breathing not fitted to inhale and receive 
the same atmosphere ; or an eye not adapted to the light, or 
the delicate organs of smell without the corresponding odor, 
would be of no account. What varied wisdom and skill were 
engaged in all those external contrivances, adaptations and 
provisions necessary to secure results so common as to seem to 
us but our own spontaneous acts. 

But the design of this chapter was rather to treat of varie- 
ties of a more obvious character, illustrating not the less strik- 
ingly the manifold wisdom of the Creator. 

In three particulars man differs in his structure from all 
other animals. These are his upright position^ the organs of 
speech, and the peculiar structure of the wrist and hand: and 
these are the three things which give man the pre-eminence, 
and dominion over the brute creation, and give him control 
over the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. 

Nearly all animals have the power to emit sounds as ex- 
pressive of internal emotions, if not of thoughts ; and this 
faculty is exercised by organs strikingly analogous to those by 
which speech is produced by man. It might puzzle the 
anatomist to discover, by any examination he is able to make, 



150 THE PALACE OE THE GREAT KING. 

why the cat, the dog or the horse may not articulate as well 
as man. He detects no organ wanting, yet the brute cannot 
articulate. 

Speech, whether it be of man, or its imitation by the brute, 
is produced by a wind-instrument called the trachea or wind- 
pipe, in connection with the act of respiration. It is a beauti- 
ful Eolian harp : its exquisitely delicate machinery is so ad- 
justed in the aperture through which passes the vital breath, 
that it emits sounds more varied, more harmonious, and of a 
more living significancy than the most perfect human instru- 
ment. It discourses sweet music, or speaks in tones of joy or 
sorrow ; in accents of manly eloquence, or scathing satire, or 
honeyed persuasion, or burning rebuke. 

So delicately wrought and so readily modulated is this 
wonderful piece of mechanism, that it is fitted to express not 
only the greatest variety of sounds^ but the greatest variety of 
thoughts and emotions ; and so self-adjusting is some of the 
exceedingly delicate machinery attached to it, that it can al- 
most instantaneously pass from the solemn to the gay — from 
anger to hilarity — it can express every imaginable shade of like 
or dislike, of pleasure or pain, of love or hate. Compared with 
this, what is the most perfect specimen of human skill ? Man 
constructs an instrument, which, by means of a great variety 
of stops, keys, screws and various other ingenious appliances, 
produces a great variety of sounds, notes, high and low, gay 
and plaintive. But how inferior this to the production of the 
Divine Hand, which is so formed as instantly, by a self-adjust- 
ment, to produce such a variety of sounds. 

The entire machinery employed to produce articulate 
sounds is very various and complicated. The tongue, the lips, 



MAK'S ORGANS OF SPEECH. 151 

the jaws and teeth, the palate, the nose and throat, together 
with a great variety of muscles, bones, nerves, blood-vessels 
and secretions, and some of them more exquisitely delicate than 
it is possible for us to conceive, all lend their aid and beauti- 
fully blend their actions to produce the wonderful phenome- 
non. The difference in this respect between man and many 
kinds of animals, seems to be not that animals are destitute of 
organs of speech — for some of them do speak — ^but that man 
possesses these organs in greater perfection. There is, in the 
one case, a finish in the workmanship, a perfection of skill, 
which is wanting in the other. The one is a musical in- 
strument with every key, screw, chord and string exquisitely 
formed and combined by a master's skill, and which, like a 
thing of life, utters the language of the soul ; the other is an 
instrument of the same form and parts, yet of coarser finish, 
and so differently combined as to utter no intelligent sound. 

We do not here forget that man has an intelligent soul, and 
that language is the utterance of thought. We speak now only 
of the physical structure.^ which we see admirably adapted, 
though at an infinite expense of skill and workmanship, to the 
great and benevolent end for which speech was given. Had we 
the exquisitely nice perception to discern the thousand little 
contrivances and adjustments in the form of muscles, nerves, 
bones and tendons which are so exactly adapted to the throat, 
the lips, the hollow of the mouth, the nose and all the parts 
which combine to form the human voice, and to produce artic- 
ulate sounds of every conceivable variety, and were we able to 
compare these with the corresponding and less perfect organs 
of the inferior animals, we should gain some appreciation of the 



152 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

exuberant skill displayed in this part of the physical struc- 
ture of man. 

A similar line of remark might have been pursued in rela- 
tion to the machinery by which other functions are performed ; 
as the touch, taste, smell or hearing ; breathing, digestion, nu- 
trition or any other function of the body. In vain do we essay 
to scan the wonderful apparatus by which offices so complicat- 
ed and curious are performed. Such mechanism equally tran- 
scends all human conception of mechanical skill. Not less 
than 100 muscles are employed in the simple act of breath- 
ing. 

Man's erect posture and the upright position of his face, is 
another peculiarity of his structure, to which we need but to 
allude. The advantages we possess on this account are abun- 
dantly obvious. 

Other physical distinctions peculiar to man, and which give 
him the advantage over all other animals, is the structure of 
his legs and feet ; and more especially of the hand and wrut. 
The leg and foot are composed of bones, muscles and ligaments, 
so put together as to form just the requisite support to an erect 
body, and to give the ease and facility of action which the erect 
body requires, and secure variety and elasticity to all his 
movements. 

The leg of no other animal is to be compared to that of 
man, for the universality and diversity of its actions. But we 
design no more than simply to direct attention to this point. 

I named one other peculiarity of the physical man — the 
mechanism of the lurist and hand. Without this peculiarity, 
man might have the reason of an angel, yet his reason would 
be of no great practical benefit to him. He might possess wis- 



THE HAND AND WEIST OF MA]^. 153 

dom and skill tenfold more than he now does, and, with only 
the hoof of the horse, or the claw of the eagle, or with the 
hand of the monkey, he could never rise above the condition of 
a better sort of brute. 

The anatomy of the hand and wrist (and a similar, though 
less perfect structure of the ankle and foot) has not failed to 
attract admiration. The chief peculiarity of structure here, is 
met in the fact that each finger is formed of three bones in- 
stead of two — is furnished with a nail instead of a claw, and 
that each is so placed in relation to the thumb that it freely 
acts with the thumb. On this simple arrangement, apparently 
so simple, yet secured only by consummate skill and contri- 
vance, depends the peculiar flexibility of all the motions of the 
fingers. It is only by this means that we can grasp an object 
— that we can lay hold of even the smallest object — that we 
can hold the pen, ply the needle, grasp the sword, use the me- 
chanical instruments, strike the musical key, or cultivate any 
one of the useful or ornamental arts of life. 

But this beautiful design, benevolent as it is, would be 
quite frustrated, were there not a like peculiar formation of the 
wrist We need here-only say that the bones are articulated, 
or connected together by two kinds of joints, the one called a 
hinge-joint, as the joint that enables us to move the hand up- 
wards and downwards ; and the other, the socket joint, formed 
by the insertion of the head of one bone in a socket of another. 
This joint is seen more perfectly in the wrist. It is this which 
allows us to move the hand from side to side, and to turn the 
palm upwards. The combination of these two kinds of joints 
in the one at the wrist, and a like combination at the shoulder, 
give all that variety and ease of motion to the arm, hand and fin- 



154 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

gers whicli so happily distinguishes man from every other living 
animal, and, as an obedient and fit instrument, makes man 
lord of this lower creation. 

Could we minutely inspect all the bones, joints, ligaments 
and articulations — all the mechanical powers and contrivances 
which make the human hand the organ it is, we should see 
reason as never before, to admire the workmanship of the 
Divine Hand. It is a most perfect specimen of mechanical 
skill. 

But there is another class of varieties not to be overlooked 
here ; more obvious than any we have named, yet not the less 
interesting. I refer to external features, organs and develop- 
ments. 

I have spoken of the marked variety which characterises 
the human voice. Articulation is produced by the same or- 
ganic structure ; yet you never heard two voices which did not 
differ. There is such a perceptible difference in the tone, the 
modulation, the quantity or quality of the voice, or in some 
indescribable something about the utterance or the mode of ut- 
terance, that it is oftentimes a more sure criterion by which to 
distinguish a person, than his form or features. And if I mis- 
take not, a little attention to sounds, as uttered by the brute 
animals^ would convince one that no two birds, even of the 
same species, sing alike, or two cocks crow alike, or two dogs 
bark or two horses neigh, in precisely the same tone of voice. 
And not only the voices of no two members of the human fam- 
ily are alike, but probably the voices of no two that ever lived 
were precisely alike. Of such variety we can form no concep- 
tion, yet it seems but analogous with the order of the Divine 
workmanship, as far as we are acquainted with it. 



155 

Before dismissing the subject of the human voice, I had 
designed to refer to a familiar and very extraordinary instance 
of its mechanism. The voice of Jenny Lind^ considered sim- 
ply as a piece of mechanical skill, was a very extraordinary pro- 
duction. We may take it as an intimation in one line of the 
capabilities of humanity, its capabilities of song — a premature 
development of the music of the upper Paradise — a develop- 
ment analogous to the extraordinary productions occasionally 
met in the vegetable world, and as rarely met in other depart- 
ments of the animal world. 

The following curious and interesting article, on the ^^Me- 
chanism of Jenny Lind's Voice^'* is copied from a late English 
paper, but originally appeared in the New York Tribune : 

" The voice of this great cantatrice is one of those wonderful 
natural gifts which Providence occasionally vouchsafes to a favorite 
mortal. Jenny Lind possesses what may be termed a double wice^ 
the natural voice from grave to the acute, a range over three octaves ; 
and she has the power and faculty of producing a recurrent^ or back- 
ward voice into the lungs, upon the upper and lower notes in sing- 
ing, which is purely ventriloquious, of which faculty her ' echo ' song 
is a perfect illustration. Thus she is able to control her voice on the 
most difficult vibrations of the vocal chords, to be perfect in her in- 
tervals, and which renders her so surprising in the perfection of 
her intonations, that they ring upon the ear with an effect and a 
charm so indescribable and puzzling to the hearer. The peculiarity 
is, this ventriloquious power ; and the wonderful part of her vocali- 
zation is, that her organization enables her to use those recurrent 
sounds the same as a person whistling executes sounds by the re- 
current action or drawing in the breath while inspiring. This 
faculty Jenny Lind controls and manages with an ease, a grace, and 
with such masterly and artistical skill as almost to defy detection by 
the most refined arid critical ear. By this recurrent or ventriloquial 
action, she has the command of the epiglottis and its parts, (the 
valve closing the laryngeal chamber when in the act of swallowing,) 



156 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

— vibrating plates, similar to the plates forming the bronchial fissure 
of the larynx, which I have stated is the natural passage for the air 
forming the voice. 

" In addition to the command over her vocal faculties, she sings 
from the larynx, while she throws the vocal force from the lungs 
and diaphram, giving to it the strength, the fulness, the roundness, 
and the steadiness and endurance of the gra'Ge^ or 'chest voice.' By 
this immensity of vocal power, by the contraction and diminution 
of the vocal chamber, she is enabled to trill and revel high into alto^ 
without any detection from her hearers of any stop or of any change 
in her voice. Thus her intonations and modulations, by this pecu- 
liar organization, are rendered perfect, and her upper and lower 
notes are given with an inflexibility and softness of which her dy- 
ing-away ' echo ' tone is a practical illustration — 

' Linked sweetness long drawn out,' 

as are also each cadenza, ' run,' ' shake,' and ' trill,' made upon her 
tones with a decision, flexibility, purit}^, and correctness that are 
only surpassed by the delicate yet magnificent swell and chaste 
diminuendo of her middle and lower tones, which has established 
that 'indescribable peculiarity ' in her voice, and emphatically se- 
cured to her the euphonious title of ' the Nightingale.' Nor are 
these all. In her thriUing notes, she has the faculty of using the 
accessory recurrent notes. It is our opinion, that the exercising of 
these notes, and this ventriloquious faculty, by overtasking her 
powers, lost to Jenny Lind her voice for a period. These accessory 
notes, although dissimilar, are rendered artistically correct, and at 
once strike the mind and awaken attention and wonderment, both 
as to the cause and their execution. It is all-sufiicient, however, that 
a pleasing charm of an exquisite novelty excites the admiration, and 
calls forth the spontaneous bursts 'of enthusiasm from her audi- 
ences, who have placed the great cantatrice, for these peculiarities, 
upon the pinnacle of fame, where she stands herself — alone — Jenny 
Lind." 

Superficial observation pronounces a thousand things to be 
like, which a little discrimination finds to be so unlike that 
the wayfaring man, though a fool, might have discovered it. 

The face J the form^ and general movemeyits of man furnish 



UNIFORMITY OF THE HUMAN FACE. 157 

other examples. Nothing is more distinctive than the human 
countenance^ yet nothing which exhibits more uniformity. It 
is rare, and indeed horrifying, to meet with a countenance 
which is wanting in any of the parts which go to make up 
the human face. Though alike in this respect, yet nothing is 
more unlike. Of all the vast population of the globe no two 
faces are precisely the same : probably the remark may be ex- 
tended to all that have or shall live on the face of the earth. 
There is, even in cases of the nearest approximation, a diver- 
sity sufficiently marked for all the purposes of distinction. I 
have seen twin sisters, as nearly alike as two peas, yet in the 
family circle and among their intimate friends the distinction 
was abundantly obvious to prevent all mistakes. Nor do we 
stop here : the countenance may be unseen, the voice unheard, 
yet there is in the form those infallible marks of distinction or 
variety which enable us, almost without mistake, to recognize 
our friends. The same may be said of general deportment. 
The maxim is extensively true, that every one has a way of 
his own. This way of his own is a universal variety, charac- 
terizing the entire race. 

And I am by no means certain that the same principle will 
not hold respecting variety in the countenance, form and gen- 
eral carriage of brutes — less striking, perhaps, -though not the 
less real. A flock of sheep or a herd of cattle look alike, on 
the same principle that an assemblage of Chinese or Africayis 
appear alike to a person unaccustomed to see men of their na- 
tional peculiarities. The attention is, at first, fixed only on 
the -general likeness. The thick lips and the curly hair of the 
one, and the long straight hair and the high cheek bones of the 
other are, perhaps, the only features contemplated. These 



158 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

every member of the same class lias in common. But tlie mo- 
ment we look beyond these marks of uniformity we find as dis- 
tinct marks of variety as in men of our own color and clime. 
So, no doubt, we should find it in reference to all those ani- 
mals with whom we have not a familiar acquaintance. 

Bodily organization affords further varieties : such as the 
greater or less predominance of the solids or fluids ; the 
strength of the passions ; the vigor of the nerves ; and the 
greater or less acuteness of the senses. 

And so it is with our susceptibilities. Some are susceptible 
of high pleasure or pain from objects which give none to others 
— not to mention all the intermediate degrees. Some have a 
high sense of honor or shame or propriety, where others are 
almost wholly destitute of it. 

We select individual organs or features ; the eyes, the 
nose, the ears ; the color of the skin and the hair ; the size, 
shape and expression of the mouth ; the form of the lips and 
the contour of the forehead ; the eye-brows, the eye-lashes ; or 
whatever feature you please, and as you compare those of any 
number of individuals composing an assemblage ever so im- 
mense, you will find no two alike. Compare noses, a thou- 
sand, or a thousand myriads if you will ; and though all are in 
general alike, yet every one is a distinct variety. Not only 
do you meet the Eoman nose, the Grecian nose, the truly or- 
thodox Jewish nose, the broad, flat nose, the pug nose, the 
evil-omened sharp nose, but, noses of the most approved pat- 
terns. Noses neither fantastically queer or ominously pointed, 
but seemingly run in the same sensible mould, are nevertheless 
as diversified as the faces to which they are attached are nu- 



VARIETY IJS^ NOSES. 159 

merous. Every man has liis own nose, and no other man of 
the universal family has a nose like him. 

A clever Quarterly discourses thus learnedly on the form 
and philosophy of noses : 

" A first division of noses includes all that are in proportion to 
the face, too small, i. e.^ all such as are decidedly less than one- 
third of the length of the face, or less long than the forehead is deep. 
The varieties of these are numerous in the snub, flat, retrousse, and 
up-turned, or celestial noses. The natural types to which they are 
generally referable are either the little noses of children, or the flat, 
broad noses of negroes ; and it is consistent with this that in men 
of civilized races all such noses indicate defective intellectual power ; 
and do so with a certainty of symbolism which nothing but excel- 
lence in the form of the head, as in the case of Socrates, can neu- 
tralize. They tell of an unfinished intellectual development 5 and the 
lower and flatter, and more snub they are, the more certainly do 
they indicate feebleness and meanness of intellect, and of a mind in 
which bad temper more than good judgment will have sway. 

" It is not quite so with women. In them the whole organiza- 
tion, in its gradual development, diverges less than that of men 
does, from the almost similar form which they both have in early 
childhood. The retention, therefore, of the little child-like nose im- 
plies no such grave defect in the woman's mind. If her head be well 
formed, such a nose may express naivete^ or perhaps smartness of 
wit and dexterous intelligence. But even in women such noses 
need to be associated with good features. If they are not, they add 
much to the expression of insignificance or even coarseness. The 
thicker and larger forms of snub nose in either sex commonly indi- 
cate the predominance of the material sensuous character ; and a 
turn-up nose with wide obvious nostrils is an open declaration (so 
far as nose can make one,) of an empty and inflated mind ; of a mind 
in which there is but the spurious^ imitation of that strength and 
loftier pride which the wide nostrils in a well-formed nose might in- 
dicate. 

^' Large noses, in men, are generally good signs ; especially, they 
add emphasis to the good indication of a well-formed head ; but they 
must not be too fleshy or too lean. If they are long, (yet short of 



160 THE PALACE OP THE GEEAT KING. 

being snout-like,) they mark, as prolongations of the forehead, the 
intelligent, observant and productive nature of the refined mind. 
If Roman, arched high and strong, they are generally associated 
with a less developed forehead and a larger hind-head ; and they 
disclose strength of will and energy, rather than intellectual pow- 
er ; they show also the want of that refinement which is indicated 
by the straighter nose. The Jewish or hawk-nose commonly sig- 
nifies shrewdness in worldly matters ; it adds force to the meaning 
of the narrow concentrative forehead, symbolical of singleness of 
object ; and its usually narrow nostrils wear the unfailing sign of cau- 
tion and timidity. The Greek straight nose, ' indicates refinement 
of character,' love for the fine arts and telles lettres^ astuteness, 
craft, and preference for indirect rather than direct action. ' Per- 
pendicular noses — that is such as approach this form, 

suppose a mind capable of acting and suffering with calmness and 
energy.' 

^'A nose slightly befied at its end, extends and corroborates the 
indication of the analytic forehead. Such noses, large and broad 
pointed, are frequent in men with acute practical knowledge of the 
world. The same befied end is often seen in the cogitative or wide- 
nostriled nose, wide at the end, thick and broad, indicating a mind 
that has strong powers of thought, and is given to close and serious 
meditation. With these symbols, Lavater's dicta fall in : ' A nose 
whose ridge is broad, no matter whether straight or curved, always 
announces superior faculties. But this form is very rare.' And 
again. 'A small nostril is the certain sign of a timid spirit.' In a 
woman a large nose is of more uncertain augury ; for it is apt to 
extend into caricature. If it be well-formed and finely modeled, a 
rather large nose, and especially one which is nearly straight, or 
slightly arched, is, in a woman, often characteristic of excellent 
mental power. But any of the more peculiarly male forms of nose, 
if large and coarsely formed in woman, denote a too masculine 
character ; and those that are of ill omen in man, are much worse 
in woman ; since the evil of being inappropriate is added to that of 
malformation." 

And so it is of eyes, ears and every other feature named. 
The general form, size and structure of the eye in every hu- 



THE EYE THE IIS^DEX OF THOUGHT. 161 

man head are strikingly alike ; yet when the eyes of any as- 
semblage of people, however large, is examined with a little 
attention, ev^ery eye of every individual is found to have its 
distinctive variety. In color, form, expression, in something, 
every eye differs from every other eye. In form, size and gen- 
eral structure, nothing would seem to present more uniformity 
than the human ear. Yet when you may be sitting behind an 
immense concourse of people, you w^ould be amused to allow 
the eye to take a glance of the array of ears before you — all 
alike — yet no two of the whole alike. 

The eye affords as prolific as it does a beautiful illustration 
of our thought. Not only in form, size, color and general 
structure, does the eye present most interesting varieties, but 
still more in its expression. Some modern writer has furnish- 
ed us a beautiful illustration in his delineation of a woman's 
eye. What strange emotions, what thoughts do we discover 
in this little mirror of the soul. There is the " glance, the 
stare, the sneer, the invitation, the defiance, the denial, the 
look of love, the flash of rage, the sparkling of hope, the lan- 
guishment of softness, the squint of suspicion, the fire of jea- 
lousy, and the lustre of pleasure : " all but a mere specimen 
of the endlessly varied expressions of what the human eye is 
capable. There is probably not a thought, not an emotion of 
the soul which it may not mirror forth. 

And in similar phrase we might speak of the form of the 
face, the general expression of countenance, the shape, size and 
expression of the mouth, and indeed every feature *of the hu- 
man face ; and each class would present varieties perhaps not 
less numerous than we have seen in respect to the eye. 

Nor is such endless variety a mere freak of nature — not 



162 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

simply to display the consummate skill of the architect. It is 
a matter of great practical utility. It displays a rich exuber- 
ance of the Divine wisdom and benevolence. But for these dis- 
tinctions, trifling as they may, at first, appear, men would lose 
their individuality — we should often be unable to distinguish 
our friends from strangers — the innocent would be arraigned 
and condemned instead of the guilty — instead of an absent child 
we might receive back a stranger who should happen to have a 
nose of the same form and size, or an eye of the same color or 
expression, the only marks of recognition which, after a long 
absence and the obliterating processes of time, might be suppos- 
ed to remain. But a kind Providence has left us to no such 
confusion and chagrin. No two individuals of all the human 
race are allowed to have the same distinctive marks. 

But what an idea does this give us again of the manifold 
wisdom of God ! — of his exhaustless skill — of his " thoughts " 
— the wonderful contrivances — the infinite designs in the Di- 
vine Mind ! It was when contemplating the wonderful work- 
manship of the Divine Hand something after this sort that 
David exclaimed, " Lord, how great are thy works, and thy 
thoughts " — the contrivances and ideas of all existing things, 
made or to be made — " are very deep." How precious thy 
thoughts unto me, God, how great is the sum of them. If 
I should count them, they are more in number than the sand ! 
Not a thing so minute is formed — not the color of a hair, or 
the form of an eye-brow, or the most trifling expression of a 
single feature of the face ; no, not the shape, size and color of 
the tiniest flower, the conception of which is not an eternal 
idea or thought in the Divine Mind. 



CHAPTER X. 

Human Skill and Workmansliip. 

Before proceeding in our survey of the department marked 
^'Man and his varieties," we may turn aside a few moments to 
contemplate some specimens of the skill and workmanship of 
man. The digression may be more seeming than real. 1 
have had occasion frequently to allude to the exquisite skill 
and workmanship of the Divine Hand as surpassing all won- 
der and comprehension. We may not compare the human 
with the Divine. We may not speak of the one as more than 
the remotest imitation of the other, yet there is something in 
the aspirations of the human mind to excel in skilful work- 
manship which cannot fail to excite our profoundest admira- 
tion — something which is divine. We trace these aspirations 
to a divine origin. '^ There is a spirit in man, and the inspira- 
tion of the Almighty giveth them understanding." 

I do not now refer so much to the thousand ingenious and 
useful inventions and discoveries, which are the proud realiza- 
tions of the human intellect, as to certain skilful executions 
of an extraordinary character. While some of these involve a 
high degree of mental acumen, they are more the objects of ad- 
miration as specimens of the extreme delicacy of workman- 
ship, and in this respect bear a more striking resemblance to 



164 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

the works -of the Supreme Architect. The resemblance, how- 
ever striking, sadly diminishes as each is subjected to a near 
inspection. The extremest microscopic view does but enhance, 
in the same proportion, the beauty of the executions of nature ; 
while the same close inspection quite mars the beauty and con- 
verts to roughness the most perfect work of human skill. 
Viewed " through the microscope, the finest and most costly fa- 
bric of the loom which has tasked the utmost reach of human 
skill, becomes hideous ropes and rags, while the beauty, grace 
and exquisite finish of' the lily is infinitely magnified." 

I shall quote but a few examples : most of which display 
more of the folly than of the wisdom of man, yet they exhibit 
a singular mechanical skill, and are worthy of notice as speci- 
mens of the diversified talent of man. 

'' The Emperor Charles V. after his abdication of the throne, 
amused himself in his later years by automata of various 
kinds. 

" It was his custom after dinner, to introduce upon the ta- 
bles figures of armed men and horses. Some beat drums, some 
played upon flutes, while others attacked each other withr 
spears. Sometimes he let fly wooden sparrows, which flew 
back again to their nest. He also exhibited corn mills, so small 
that they could be concealed in a glove. 

" The next piece of mechanism of the kind worthy of much 
notice, was constructed by M. Camus for the amusement of 
Louis XIV. when a child. It consisted of a small coach which 
was drawn by two horses, and which contained the figure of a 
lady within, with a footman and page behind. The machine 
was placed on a table at one extremity, when the coachman 
smacked his whip, and the horses set ofl', moving their legs in 



WONDEEFUL MECHANISM. 165 

a natural manner, drawing the coacli after them. When the 
coach reached the opposite edge of the table it turned sharply 
round at a right angle and proceeded along the adjacent edge. 
As soon as it reached the place opposite where the king sat, it 
stopped, the page descended and opened the coach-door ; the 
lady alighted, and with a courtesy presented a petition, which 
she held in her hand, to the king. After waiting some time, 
she again courtesied and re-entered the carriage. The page 
closed the door, and resuming his seat behind, the coachman 
whipped his horses and drove on. The footman, who had pre- 
viously alighted, ran after the carriage and jumped up behind 
into his former place." 

'' The automaton peacock of Gen. Degennes, a French oflScer 
of the 17th century, probably suggested to Fancauson the idea 
of constructing his celebrated duck, which excited so much in- 
terest throughout Europe, and which was perhaps the most 
v/onderful piece of mechanism ever made. This duck exactly 
resembled the living one in size and appearance. It executed 
accurately all its movements and gestures — it ate, and drank 
with avidity, performed all the quick motions of the head and 
throat peculiar to the living animal, and like it muddled the 
w^ater it drank with its bill. It produced the sound of quack 
ing in the most natural manner. Every bone in the real duck 
had its representative in the automaton, and its wings were 
anatomically exact. When corn was thrown down before it, 
it reached out its neck to pick it up. It swallowed it, digested 
it, and discharged it. The digestion was accomplished by a 
chemical solution, after which it was conveyed away by tubes. 
Beekman, who saw it long after, informs us that its ribs were 
of wire, and that the motion was communicated through the 



166 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

feet by means of a cylinder and fine cliains like that of a 
watch." 

" A miscroscopic photograph was recently exhibited at Man- 
chester, England, of the size of a pin's head, which when magni- 
fied several hundred times, was seen to contain a group of seven 
portraits, the likenesses being admirably distinct. Another of 
less size represented a tablet erected to the memory of a citi- 
zen of Manchester ; it covered one nine-hundredth part of a 
superficial inch, and contained 680 letters, every one of which 
could be distinctly seen by the aid of the microscope." 

'^ In the olden times, people's fancies ran into queer ex 
tremes, and set their ingenuity to work in odd veins, as use- 
less as curious. For instance, there is a cherry-stone at the 
Salem (Mass.) Museum which contains one dozen silver spoons. 
The stone, itself, is of the ordinary size, but the spoons are so 
small that their shape and finish can only be well distinguished 
by the microscope. Here is the result of immense labor, for no 
decidedly useful purpose ; and there are thousands of other ob- 
jects in the world, fashioned by ingenuity, the value of which, 
in a utilitarian sense, may be quite as indifierent. Dr. Oliver 
gives an account in his Philosophical Transactions, by the way, 
of a cherry-stone, on which were carved one hundred and 
twenty-four heads, so distinctly that the naked eye could dis- 
tinguish those belonging to popes, and kings, by their mitres and 
crowns. It was bought in Prussia for $1,500, and thence con- 
veyed to England, where it was considered an object of so 
much value, that its possession was disputed, and became the 
object of a suit in chancery. This stone Dr. O. saw in 1G87." 

" In more remote times still, an account is given of an ivory 
chariot, constructed by Mermecides, which was so small that a 



MINIATUKE WKITHSTGS. 167 

fly could cover it witli its wing ; also a ship of the same ma- 
terial, which could be hidden with the wings of a bee ! Pliny, 
too, tells that Homer's Iliad, which is fifteen thousand verses, 
was written in so small a space as to be contained in a nut- 
shell ; while Elia mentions an artist who wrote a distich in 
letters of gold, and enclosed it in the rind of a kernel of corn. 
But the Harren MS. mentions a greater curiosity than any of 
the above ; it being nothing more or less than the Bible written 
by one Petre Bales — a chancery clerk — in so small a book that 
it could be enclosed within the shell of an English walnut. 
D'Israeli gives an account of many other similar exploits to 
that of Bales." 

" There is a drawing of the head of Charles II., in the library 
of St. John's College, Oxford, wholly composed of minute- 
written characters, which, at a small distance, resemble the 
lines of an engraving. The head and the ruff are said to con- • 
tain the book of Psalms, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. 
Again, in the British Museum, is a portrait of Queen Anne, 
not much bigger than the hand. On this drawing are a num- 
ber of lines and scratches, which, it is asserted, include the en- 
tire contents of a thin folio." 

Such illustrations of genius and industry are scarcely more 
than melancholy tokens of perverted skill and assiduity. In 
modern days human genius has sought out a more excellent 
way for its development. Once it scarcely aspired to a higher 
honor or ofBce than to amuse the curious, or to cater to the 
gratification of the great. Now it becomes the minister of 
human profit and of human progress. It enters into the very 
business of life — gives wings to commerce — teaches how to ex- 
tract the metal and the useful mineral from the earth and to 



108 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

fashion them into implements and agencies of profit to man — it 
gives power and skill to the mechanic, and ministers essential 
and timely aid to the farmer. Human skill, no longer satis- 
fied to fill the office of a mere inventor and fabricator of toys, 
has become the handmaid of human improvement. 

It is indeed singular how many " men have literally devoted 
the energies of their minds to perfecting toys, which, although 
displaying wonderful inventive powers, yet have never confer- 
red any benefit on mankind, nor ever been even used for any 
other purpose than as a piece of amusement — the childish ex- 
hibition of masculine mind, the fame of foolery, and foolery of 
fame. 

'' Thus Jerome Faba, an Italian priest, and a native of Ca- 
labria, exercised himself in a species of industry, wonderful 
from its difficulty. He finished a work of box- wood, which re- 
presented all the mysteries of the Passion, and which might be 
put in the shell of a walnut. To him was attributed a coach, 
the size of a grain of wheat, within which there were to be seen 
a man and a woman, a coachman who drove it, and horses that 
drew it. These were presented to Francis I. and Charles the 
Fifth. 

" In China, the tomb of Confucius has been made in small 
miniature, no larger than a nut, but wonderfully composed of 
precious metals, and adorned with a profusion of gems ; but its 
value consists of the labor expended on its execution. Its 
landscapes, dragons, angels, animals, and human figures, 
would require several pages of description, which would, after 
all, without a view of the model, prove tedious and unin- 
telligible. 

" Charles V., of Spain, had a watch which was confined in 



THE TOMB OF RAPHAEL. 169 

the jewel of his ring ; and a watchmaker in London presented 
George III. with one set in the same manner. Its size was 
something less than a silver two-pence, and it contained one 
hundred and twenty-five difierent parts, and weighed alto- 
gether no more than five pennyweights and seven grains. 

'' The tomb of Eaphael, executed by an Italian named Eac- 
cavalva, is indeed a wonder. It is only twelve inches in 
height, and from an inch to four inches in diameter. It is 
adorned with various architectural ornaments, in the richest 
style of Gothic, and also figures of the virgin and child. The 
work is said to be of unrivalled merit and beauty. The model 
is contained in a case of wrought gold, and is itself of box- 
wood. The general design may be regarded as architectural, 
embellished with several compartments of sculpture, or of carv- 
ing, consisting of various groups of figures. These display 
difierent events in the life of Christ. Some of the figures are 
less than a quarter of an inch in height, but, though thus mi- 
nute, are all finished with the greatest precision and skill ; and 
what renders this execution still more curious and admirable, 
is the delicacy and beauty with which the back and distant 
figures are executed. 

"A Polish gentleman in New York has transcribed the Holy 
Bible on a surface of about the size of a mantel pier glass, 
presenting at first view the appearance of a beautiful temple, 
but on close examination every part of the elevation, each win- 
dow and doorway, and every thing about the picture, is found 
to be distinct and regular handwriting, not one word of the 
Bible being omitted, no sentence transposed, and the chap- 
ters following each other in proper order. The work required 
two years and seven months of constant labor. When he 



170 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

commenced, he was entirely ignorant of the English lan- 
guage." 

The Birmingham Journal says, '' An extraordinary instance 
of industry in an humble way has recently come under our no- 
tice. A working tailor, named George Watts, residing at 
West Bromwich, has just completed a piece of fancy needle- 
work, consisting of upwards of four thousand pieces of cloth, 
sewed together with different colored silk. There are three 
hundred figures formed by pieces of cloth upon this cover ; 
amongst which are scenes illustrative of Paradise, the Death of 
Abel, the Crucifixion, &c. ; animals, flowers, ships, bridges and 
fortresses. The whole is the work of his hand, and occupied 
him for five years and nine months, from two to three days in 
the week having been devoted to its completion. It is valued 
at £300." 

Or we might quote a no less extraordinary instance of in- 
genious mechanical execution, from another English paper. 
"A person," says the Bradford Observer^ "brought to our 
office the other day, a polished hazel nut mounted with silver, 
and made to open on hinges, and close with a spring. On 
opening this diminutive casket, there lay upon crimson silk a 
silver tea-kettle, with hinged lid, all of the neatest and most 
perfect finish. This fairy apparatus, we were informed, was 
made from a fourpenny piece, by a working jeweller named 
Burton, in the employ of Messrs. Wilson & Fairbank, of this 
town." 

We are justly amazed at the revelations of the microscope. 
It displays a minuteness and delicacy of workmanship in Na- 
ture's architecture often surpassing all credence. Yet we oc- 
casionally meet with imitations in art which scarcely amaze 



SPECIMENS OF NATUKE AND AET. lYl 

US less. The following, in which we find the two species of work- 
manship coupled together, may be taken as a specimen of each : 
There is a shell, which, when examined with a microscope, dis- 
plays a surface dotted over with minute protuberances, regu- 
larly arranged in rows, and lying so closely together that it 
would require 8,000,000 of them to fill the space of a sixteenth 
of an inch square. It is stated that a Mr. Nobert has succeeded 
in ruling a set of parallel lines occupying 112,603 to the inch. 
By crossing such lines with another set of equal fineness, the 
surface of one sixteenth of an inch square would be divided 
into 49,000,000 of parts ! These lines are not only invisible 
to the naked eye, but the best microscope will scarcely discern 
them. 

We are astonished at the ingenuity which can carve hun- 
dreds of heads, or thousands of letters on the surface of a 
cherry-stone. Yet how remote an imitation is this of l^ature's 
painting! Every mountain, hill, dale, river, tree, plant, flow- 
er — every object in a landscape of miles in extent, is painted 
at the same moment on the retina of the eye. Yea, the whole 
broad concave of the heavens is reflected in a single dew- 
drop. 

We may be indulged in adding one more specimen of the 
curious ingenuity of man. We select that of a wonderful 
clock. Toward the close of the sixteenth century, Jaquet 
Doros, a Swiss clockm^ker, carried to Ferdinand, the Catholic, 
king of Spain, a clock, which was the wonder of all Europe. 
The king paid the large sum of 500 louis (about 2,200 dol- 
lars) for it ; and when it arrived, he gathered his most illus- 
trious noblemen to look at its marvellous works. The clock 
represented a landscape, and when it struck the hour, a shep- 



172 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

herd issued from behind some rocks, and played six different 
tunes upon his flute ; while his dog very naturally fawned upon 
him; and to the king the dog was faithful as well as affection- 
ate. Doros told him to touch the fruit in the basket by the 
side of the shepherd. The king laid hold of an apple, and the 
dog at once sprung at his hand, barking so naturally that a 
spaniel in the room replied with great ferocity, and showed 
signs of fight. At this all the court left, crying out, " Sorcery ! " 
and there was only left the king and the minister of the navy. 
The king asked the shepherd what time it was ? The clock- 
maker told him that he did not understand Spanish, but if he 
would ask him in French he would reply. The king then put 
his question in French, when the shepherd instantly replied. 
This was too much for the minister of the navy, and he in- 
stantly ran away. The poor clockmaker was in danger of be- 
ing burnt for a sorcerer; but he explained the wonder to the 
grand inquisitor, who was convinced that instead of being the 
work of evil spirits, it was only the result of great ingenuity. 

But human skill and power are not the less worthy of no- 
tice, as they are employed in the control of the more potent 
agencies of nature, subjecting them to the use of man. While 
man on the one hand, is capable of employing a skill which is 
almost divine, he is on the other, allowed the control of pow- 
ers or physical forces not the less extraordinary. The winds 
obey his behests, and bear his ships over oceans wide and 
boisterous. His mechanical skill and the power which he is 
able to call to his aid, constructs vessels which can breast the 
most tempestuous seas. Steam, wild and untangible and ob- 
streperous as the whirlwind, is tamed and made a docile loco- 
motive power. Water, fire, the vivid lightning, are made 



EXPERT USE OF THE HAISD. l73 

subservient messengers and obedient agents to execute the 
varied purposes of man. As man wills, and calls into action 
the powers at his command, he achieves ends which as far 
transcend the powers of the wisest and most powerful irrational 
animals, as angels excel in wisdom and power the wisest and 
mightiest of mortals. 

The following facts will serve to give some further hints as 
to the capabilities of man, in relation to the expert use of the 
hand. Man is distinguished from all other animals by the 
singular structure of the hand, and its capabilities of serving 
so many useful purposes ; yet its higher capabilities are 'but 
seldom developed. In type-founding, for example, when the 
melted metal has been poured into the moulds, the workman, 
by a peculiar turn of his hand, or rather jerk, causes the metal 
to be shaken into all the minute interstices of the mould. 

The heads of certain kinds of pins are formed by a coil or 
two of fine wire placed at one end. This is cut off from a long 
coil fixed in a lathe ; the workman cuts off" one or two turns of 
the coil, guided entirely by his eye, and such is the manual 
dexterity displayed in the operation, that a workman will cut 
ofi* 20,000 or 30,000 heads without making a single mistake as 
to the number of turns in each. An expert workman can fas- 
ten on from 10,000 to 15,000 of these heads in a day. 

The reader will frequently have seen the papers in which 
pins are stuck for sale; children can paper from 30,000 to 
40,000 in a day, although each pin involves a separate and 
distinct operation. 

In stamping the grooves in the heads of needles, the opera- 
tive can finish 8,000 in an hour, although he has to adjust each 
separate wire at every blow. In punching the eye-holes of 



174 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KIN^G. 

needles by hand, children, who are the operators, acquire such 
dexterity as to be able to punch one human hair and thread in 
with another, for the amusement of visitors. 

In finally "papering" needles for sale, the females can 
count and paper 3,000 in an hour. 

Nor is the following unworthy of notice as a specimen of a 
somewhat similar ingenuity : " We were shown, this morning," 
says the Buffalo Commercial^ " a curious specimen of chirogra- 
phy ; the Lord's Prayer written in a single line, one inch and 
three quarters in length. The entire number of words is sixty- 
three, and the number of letters two hundred and forty-seven. 
The average number of letters to an inch is one hundred and 
forty, and the average number of words thirty-six. It adds to 
the wonder of this performance in penmanship, that it was 
written by a gentleman of this city, in the sixty-ninth year of 
his age, who, as he approaches the limit of threescore years 
and ten, is anxious to prove that his eye is not dimmed nor the 
cunning of his hand abated. The aid of a lens is required to 
read it." 

Eev. Dr. Kirk, in a letter from Manchester, England, says : 
" I had, in the oldest factory of the town, a striking exhibi- 
tion of the value of human art and labor. A pound of cotton 
was pointed out as worth a pound of gold. Its cost as crude 
cotton may have been eight cents. And, as a curiosity of art, 
I was shown a pound of cotton spun into a thread that would 
go round our globe at the equator, and tie in a good large knot 
of many hundred miles in length." 



CHAPTER XL 

Man : All sorts of Men to make a "World— Characteristics and Idiosyncrasies. 

But we propose to take a more practical view of man. "We 
shall then see him in a yet stranger variety. Man appears be- 
fore us in every possible condition of life, high and low, rich 
and poor, wise and ignorant, depressed and afflicted, prosper- 
ous and happy ; he has mental aptitudes and endowments in 
the most varied measure and in the strangest variety, and we 
find him endowed with personal characteristics and idiosyncra- 
sies as strangely diversified. The latter classes of varieties 
will abundantly serve our purpose in the present chapter. 

It is an old adage that "^ it takes all sorts of men to make 
a world." We shall not venture to call in question the truth 
of this time-honored proverb, but shall rather undertake to 
verify its truth as a matter of fact, and as an arrangement of a 
wise and beneficent Providence. KTo one indeed who has had 
the opportunity for much observation, doubts the fact that the 
world is made up of men and women of every conceivable sort, 
kind and caste — of every possible shade and character, tem- 
per and disposition, taste and aptitude ; of every intellectual 
grade ; and men in every imaginable condition of life. But 
the wisdom and the uses of such providential arrangements 
are not always so obvious. 



176 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

We should jSnd no end were we to attempt to point out all 
the varieties to be met in the character and condition of man 
— all his diversities of gifts, graces, talents, accomplishments, 
capabilities, aptitudes and susceptibilities. In form and shape 
of body ; color of skin ; contour and expression of counte- 
nance ; in color of eyes and hair ; tones of voice ; in the shape 
of the nose, ears, chin, or any other feature of the face ; as 
well as in the general address and gait or movements of the 
locomotive members ; or in all his intellectual qualities, ac- 
quirements and habits, and in moral and religious characteris- 
tics, we meet no two alike. I shall, however, at present, limit 
myself to three classes of varieties : 

1st. Some obvious distinctions of general character, which 
I shall place under the head of all sorts of folks. 2d. Intel- 
lectual varieties and their uses and benefits ; and, 3d. Varie- 
ties in conditions and social positions of men. 

The limits of this chapter will allow us to characterize only 
a few of the first class : the '' all sorts of folks" who go to make 
up a world. We meet men in all the varied conditions of life 
— in every possible aspect of intellectual and moral culture, 
in every social position, and in all the distinctions made by 
wealth, business, ofiice, rank. Yet this is not precisely what 
we mean by our motto. There are other obvious distinctions 
of a general character — not easily defined, and with difiiculty 
classified, yet easily recognized, which may be ranged under 
the above head. We shall try to find something unto which 
to liken them. 

And, first, there's your iron man ; firm, determined, harder 
than the granite — unless you get him heated. Eight or wrong, 
you may hammer at him as long as you please ; it is no use, 



MEN OF STEEL, WELL TEMPERED. 177 

if lie only keep cool. Yet stern, frigid, unattractive as lie 
may appear, he is your generally and most permanently useful 
man. The world might as well expect to get on without the 
use of iron as without this hardy, industrious, weighty class of 
men. Only engage their tenacity and hardness on the right 
side and they are the best men in the world. 

Then there's your men of steel : possessing all the intrinsi- 
cally excellent qualities of hardness and tenacity and durability 
and general usefulness of the class just named, and over and 
above these, they are fitted to serve some purposes which the 
iron man does not. They are more elastic — more delicate and 
flexible — yet abate not an iota of the tenacity and hardness of 
the man of iron (which they inherit as a birth-right). The 
truth is, they are the same in stamina and material, only tem- 
pered and refined^ and made more pliable and useful in certain 
departments of life's business. They take a higher polish; 
and, like steel, that can be worked up into a great variety of 
utensils, vessels, tools, weapons of defence, and be used exten- 
sively for mechanical and for ornamental purposes, where iron 
would not do, this class of men, fill a place and exert an influ- 
ence in human enterprise and progress where the rougher vir- 
tues of the other class do not reach. Where, in human activi- 
ties, sharp-edged tools are needed; where keener perceptions 
and more delicate sensibilities are required ; and yet nerves 
not the less firm, and resolutions not the less determined, men 
of steel are much better than your iron men. Both possess 
the same general substratum or basis of character ; the one is 
the more generally useful and indispensably necessary, and 
the other the most highly useful in the particular sphere to 
which their activities are more especially adapted. 



178 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

We have, too, our silver men : very useful in their way, be- 
cause they occupy positions which make them useful. Silver 
is of little intrinsic value in itself. The commercial world 
have given it an importance by agreeing to use it to represent 
property as a circulating medium. And it is extensively and 
conveniently used for mechanical purposes, and for ornament. 
But differently from iron and steel, its use might be dispensed 
with, and other metals used in its stead. So our silver men 
and women are convenient, and often ornamental, and, from 
position, often very useful, but not, like our iron and steel men, 
indispensable. Their value is fictitious rather than real. We 
should esteem them because of the value we have agreed they 
shall represent, and the useful purposes to which we have 
assented to devote them. There would be left a great chasm 
in society if their places were vacated. 

Claiming, and sometimes seeming to belong to the same 
class, are your silver-coated^ silver-washed and silver-plated 
men. This kind of gentry are alloy s^ with a thin coating of a 
better metal; yet not wholly worthless. Though their out- 
side shine is the least of their worth, yet there is there a sub- 
stratum of the baser metals, of some worth. To this class be- 
longs the first layer of those interesting personages called apers 
and pretenders. They frequently pass for more than they are 
worth till the silver-coating begins to wear off", and then you 
see what they are. 

Next comes your gold men : pure, genuine men of sterling 
worth. They have position, wealth, influence, and they know 
how to use them for the real good of society. Eefined and in- 
telligent, the heart right and in the right place, they are the 
pure gold of the earth. Though like gold scarce, yet like gold 



MEN" OF GOLD, TIN AND LEAD. 179 

of high value. In all the practical purposes of life ; in all 
philanthropical enterprises, and in whatever goes to promote 
the real advancement of man, they are worth their weight in 
gold. But there are the would-be's of this class, too — gold- 
fringed men, gilt men ; men and women of glitter and gold 
tinsel, and all the sickly silken sons and daughters of fashion 
and pleasure ; no more like the real men of gold than the 
slightest possible gilding is like a lump of gold. 

Then there are the men of tin : thin-lipped, sharp-nos- 
ed — neither very close-mouthed, nor safe-mouthed — a little 
tart, and not overburdened with the milk of human kind- 
ness or troubled with common sense; and withal a little 
pretentious, if not co^^tentious — and, like tin when well 
scoured, making pretensions to be of the silver gentry. 

Again, we meet a class that we can only liken to lead: 
heavy, dull — body, brains, arms and legs made about of the 
same material — mind, heart, pluck, made of the same dead, 
dull, dark, crocky, muddy substance — no more life or elasticity 
than a dead lump of lead. 

As remotely akin to these are men of stone r rough, cold- 
hearted, hard-faced — and like stones, you tumble over in the 
street, or find troublesome in the fi^ld, you wish there were 
less of them ; yet when you have succeeded in quarrying and 
cutting and polishing, they turn out sometimes useful and or- 
namental blocks. 

In complete contrast to the two last, we have our India 
Buhher men ; all elasticity. You may turn them, twist them, 
bend them any way you please — mould them into any shape 
— put them to any use — make any thing of them, or nothing as 
you will — make a foot-hall of them, which you may kick as 



180 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

you choose — make a ball that will roll as well one way as 
another — all side and no side — a ball that you throw or toss, 
or make bound up or down. They are men of any opinion 
or principle, or of no opinion or principle ; and as little scru- 
pulous of any practice ; as pliable as their very elastic proto- 
type. And in nothing does the resemblance appear more 
striking than in the elasticity of their consciences. They can 
stretch their conscience, before it will give any compunctious 
signs of violence, as far as you can draw out a piece of India 
Eubber. They are all things in general and nothing in parti- 
cular. 

In contrast again with the last are your men of glass : 
open, frank, transparent sort of men — easy, good-natured 
bodies, without craft or disguise, whose thoughts lie outside — 
you can see right through them. They are quite at odds with 
the crafty and designing, and can present but a feeble resist- 
ance to the pressure of life's evils, and of course are but poorly 
fitted to meet the rough and tumble of the world. One good 
crash of adversity is enough to break them into a thousand 
pieces. They are very good sort of men, and fill many useful 
places, yet they are made rather for the sunshine of prosperity 
than for the hailstorm of adversity. 

Other men that it takes to make a wx)rld, we may denomi- 
nate brass men and peivter men. These are both compounds. 
Not exactly one thing or the other, but some of both. The 
first class, like brass its prototype, has some claims to be con- 
sidered a finer metal. But people of this stamp generally put 
forward their claims with so much effrontery, if not arrogance, 
that their claims are resisted or grudgingly allowed. This 
class is distinguished for little else than their self-conceit and 



MEN OF ALL VARIETIES. 181 

impudence. They have two much brass. The pewter men are 
half lead and half tin^ no fixed character : sometimes as dead 
as lead, and under other circumstances as biting and rasping 
as the rough edge of a sheet of tin. 

Then comes, by way of contrast, your loish-a-washy^ linsey- 
woolsey^ tow, string men, all belonging to the same genus — half 
vegetable, half animal, yet neither so well developed that you 
are quite positive where to classify them. The head of each 
betrays a decided affinity to a vegetate nature, especially to 
that of the squash species ; while in other parts the animal de- 
cidedly predominates. This species is not generally vicious, 
or rabid, or mischievous, for the very good reason that they are 
not capable of putting forth any such positive symptoms of 
vitality. 

Then we have men of mercury — quick, mercurial. These 
are your quicksilvers — shiny, showy — generally good metal 
— next to gold — though not quite so tangible — a little too 
slippery and rather fiery. These quicksilvers quite as often 
figure in female attire and rightfully belong to the sex. 
Though sometimes a little feared, and their currency occasionally 
questioned, yet they may be depended on as the genuine coin. 
Care must be taken, however, to distinguish this class from the 
gunpowder, and other explosive classes. The latter are never 
safe to bring about your domestic hearths, especially if you 
have a little too much^r^ there of your own. 

Then, again, for variety's sake, we have our gas men, or 
gaseous men, who are inflated like an air balloon ; the one 
with gas, the other with vanity. They occupy considerable 
space during the inflation; but cut the film that holds .the 
gas and they vanish into desert air. These men's heads are 



182 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

as hollow as their hearts are corrupt. Under the same genus 
we may class men of froth and effervescence^ and all empty 
wind men. 

•Some men are rough, uncouth, growling, grumbling like 
the bear ; others are lion-like or tiger-like^ or wolfish^ or fox- 
like. Some are timid as the deer, or gentle as the lamb, or 
possessed of the strength, beauty and alertness of the leopard. 
Others are morose and surly like mastiff, or arrogant and over- 
bearing like the bull-dog, or snarling and snapping like the 
cur, forever barking, but never having the courage to bite. 

So much in harmony with our present mode of illustration is 
the following paragraphs taken from Dickens' Household Words 
that I hesitate not to appropriate them. It would seem not im- 
probable that it takes as majiy sorts oi women to make a world as 
it does men. If " female faces " exhibit so singular, and some- 
times so grotesque a variety, we might expect to meet as pro- 
lific display of variety in other features and female peculiarities. 
"I know a woman," says Dickens, in Household Words, "who 
might have been the ancestress of all the rabbits in the 
hutches of England. A soft, downy-looking, fair-faced wo- 
man, with long hair, lopping-like ears and an innocent face of 
mingled timidity and surprise. She is a sweet-tempered 
thing, always eating or sleeping, who breathes hard when she 
goes up stairs, and who has as few brains in working order as 
a human being can get on with. She is just such a human 
rabbit, and nothing more — and she looks like one. We all 
know the setter-woman — the best of the types — graceful, ani- 
mated, well -formed, intelligent, with large eyes and wavy hair, 
who walks with a firm tread, but a light one, and who can turn 
her hand to any thing. The true setter-woman is always 



WOMEN OF ALL SORTS. 183 

married ; she is the real woman of- the world. Then there is 
the Blenheim spaniel, who covers up her face in her ringlets, 
and holds down her head when she talks, and she is shy and 
timid. And there is the grey hound- woman, with lantern jaws 
and braided hair, and her large knuckles generally rather dis- 
torted. There is the cat- woman ; too elegant, stealthy, clever, 
caressing, who walks without noise, and is great in the way of 
endearment. No limbs are so supple as hers, no backbone so 
wonderfully pliant, no voice so sweet, no manner so endearing. 
She extracts your secrets from you before you know that you 
have spoken, and half an hour's conversation with that grace- 
ful, purring woman, has revealed to her every most dangerous 
fact it has been your life's study to hide. The cat-woman is a 
dangerous woman. She has claws hidden in that velvet paw, 
and she can draw blood when she unsheathes them. Then 
there is a cow-faced woman, generally of phlegmatic disposi- 
tion, given to pious books and teetotalism. And there is the 
lurcher woman, the strong-visaged, strong-minded female, who 
wears rough coats, with men's pockets and large bone buttons, 
and whose bonnet flings a spiteful defiance at both beauty and 
fashion. 

'^ I have never seen a true lion-headed woman^ excepting 
in that black Egyptian figure sitting with her hands on her 
knees, and grinning grimly on the museum world, as Bubastis 
the lion-headed goddess of the Nile." 

There remains one other class of men which ought not to be 
passed unnoticed. It is a sort of hybrid race, mongrel, hetero- 
geneous, anomalous, which we are at a loss where to classify. 
We refer to your exquisites, your fancy gentlemen, gentlemen 
loafers, and their yet more exquisite counterparts of the other 



184 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

sex. These notables are not simple substances, but compounds 
— compositions — cosmetics of exquisite mixture — ^bitter, sweet, 
oily, odoriferous — rare and exquisite specimens of humanity. 
While we cannot form them into a distinct class, we cannot 
arrange them in any one class already named. They belong 
rightfully to at least three of the above specified classes. They 
belonged to the silver-coats — or are of the gold- fringed caste 
— ^gilt men — the gilding often as thin as the most delicate 
foil, and covering a mass of the basest sort of metal. Again, 
these exquisites show strong affinities to the class we denomi- 
nated gaseous. Just perforate these bags of wind and discharge 
their gas^ and they would collapse, and not much would be left 
of them. And another portion of this class bear quite as near 
an affinity to your wish-a-wasJiy^ dough-brained gentry. 

But we need carry our comparisons no further. We see 
that if it were the design of Providence to make up the world 
with all conceivable specimens of humanity, it has doubtless 
been done. And if it were the design that the great family of 
man should exist in such an endless variety of character as to 
develop every passion of the human heart, good or bad ; to ex- 
emplify every grace and virtue of life ; to present every phase 
of human character ; to illustrate every faculty of the mind ; 
to do every duty and to meet every want of man ; and to fill 
every supposable station in this present life, w^e see how, in the 
present diversified character of man, it has been done. 

If, then, life is a great stage on which man is to act himself 
out J and to develop all there is in him and of him — to form 
character and to develop character ; and all this in reference 
to a final accountability, and a future state of yet higher de- 
velopment, we need not wonder that human nature should be 



ALL MAKE A COMPLETE WHOLE. 185 

allowed its developments in every imaginable variety of indi* 
vidual character. It is not, therefore, an accident that all 
sorts of people do make up a world ; but it is an essential part 
of the plan of the great and wise Architect, that human charac- 
ter and human conduct, good and bad, should be brought out 
and illustrated in every possible trait and feature. 

Though w^e have not attempted to do more than to present, 
as specimens, a few of the endlessly varied characteristics of 
man, we have, doubtless, left the impression, at least, that, in 
the rearing of the great and fair fabric of humanity, there 
are worked in a great many very queer, odd, shapeless and 
hopeless blocks : and it is more than we can explain how such 
varied, confused and heterogeneous materials are fitted and 
shaped, compacted and cemented so as to make one great, 
beautiful and well-ordered structure: all fitted and formed one 
to another, and each to its place — some huge, rough, unwieldy 
blocks lie concealed in the foundation, main supports of the 
whole, yet unseen and unadmired ; others, cut and polished, 
adorn the comely front, admired of all. Some fill up the 
chinks or form the back walls ; others are carved into orna- 
ments and serve both to strengthen and beautify the whole. 
Each fills its destined place, and each is needful to the com- 
pleteness of the great whole. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Varieties Intellectual : Many Men of many Minds, or all sorts of Minds make a 

World. 

Similar ends are answered in tlie general economy of the 
great human family by the singular intellectual varieties which 
exist among men. There is originally, no doubt, every imagi- 
nable variety in the intellects of men. Educate any two 
minds precisely the same — submit them to the same discipline, 
and store them equally with knowledge, and each will show 
its own peculiar idiosyncrasy. The reasonings of the two from 
the same facts, and their conclusions from the same premises, 
would, in no two cases, be the same. There is as great a di- 
rersity of talents, taste and genius, as there are individual 
minds. 

It would be quite impossible to enumerate the various ca- 
pacities and capabilities of the human mind, even in its original 
state, before we come to the yet more remarkable diversities 
which have been produced by education, habit and society. 
To describe the latter would be to enumerate all the endlessly 
varied attributes and proclivities of all the minds of the en- 
tire race — all their various capacities, dispositions and capabil- 
ities. 

While all human minds are essentially alike, each presents 
its specific varieties, which we may call its taste, talents or 



DIVERSITIES OF MENTAL OPEEATIO:^rS. 18V 

proclivities. One has a talent for the acquisition and correct 
use of language. An inaccuracy in grammar would disturb 
such a one more than a deficiency of sense. Another has a 
logical mind — is argumentative, nice and accurate in its defi- 
nitions and distinctions, and given to reasoning, and takes 
nothing for granted. One mind delights in research — is al- 
ways digging — searching after things abstruse or hidden — 
tracing all things back to their origin, and never satisfied even 
with the fairest fabric unless it can see the lowest, rudest foun- 
dation stone. Another takes in things as it were by absorp- 
tion — gathers facts as by intuition, and jumps at conclusions 
as if premises were of nothing worth. One takes the sober, 
serious, matter-of-fact view of things, and contemplates them 
in reference to their utility : another, at first view, seizes intui- 
tively only on the ludicrous aspects of a subject, and contem- 
plates it at first only in its fitness to administer to his amuse- 
ment^ or immediate gratification ; only on second thought do 
its utilities and more substantial qualities appear. 

Again, we meet with the huge, solid, cubic, mathematical 
mind, where all must be demonstrated by figures. Squares, 
cubes, triangles, right lines and equations, are as essential to the 
existence and health of such a mind as brick and mortar, wood 
and stone, are to the master builder. With him nothing is 
right, either in reason or in fact, if it be not mathematically 
right. Contrasted with this is the poetic mind, and all those 
intellectual tribes that write, read and live in the great world of 
fiction and romance. To the one reason and reality are every 
thing. To the other, the world and all that is therein, is ideal 
They live in a world that has no existence ; they move about 
among beings that are but the creatures of their own fancy. 



188 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

They laugh at their own spectres; weep over sorrows that 
never were ; rejoice and sympathise with friends and hate ene- 
mies which belong to a world that nowhere is. 

Some minds are so constructed that they first see, and 
longest contemplate only the dark side of an object, or of life : 
others seize, as by intuition, on the bright features; laugh 
when and where they can, and leave the dark features to lower 
and brew the storm, till some propitious sun arise and chase 
away the darkness, and all become light together. Some 
minds are naturally aspiring^ grasping after great things, and 
possessed of an immense scope of comprehension. They as- 
pire to a knowledge of all sciences. They grasp to know all 
in this world, and fain would compass in their knowledge all 
things in all the worlds that sparkle in the vast universe. 
Other minds are as naturally drivelling and grovelling. Low, 
vulgar things and thoughts are the congenial occupants of such 
a soil. 

Some minds, again, are naturally philosophical. They are 
forever searching into the properties of bodies, and the causes 
of events, and the reasons of things. They take nothing on 
trust, and scarcely know whether any thing is what it appears 
to be. They must know its nature^ not only its nature as a 
compound, but they are not content till they have traced each 
component part down to its infinitesimal atoms, or primordial 
particles, a million of which are said not to be larger than a 
grain of sand. Others never feel any promptings to go beyond 
the surface of things, and never care to know whether an effect 
has a cause, or a compound any component parts. 

In contrast with this, taste^ graceful inmate of the human 
breast, is beautifully prolific of illustrations to our purpose. 



TASTE MULTIPLYING VARIETY. 189 

Variety in taste itself is proverbial. Love of variety is one of 
the strongest as well as the most common elements of the 
human mind. The fact is too obvious to require comment — 
the field too broad for illustration. Yet we may allude to the 
singular, productiveness of this variety-loving taste. The 
strong innate passion is constantly and infinitely embodying 
itself, in some way, in nature ; thus multiplying variety be- 
yond all conception. It originates variety in food, dress, pur- 
suits, enjoyments. How it variegates the fabrics which cover 
and adorn our persons — which load our tables and minister to 
our ten thousand gratifications. 

As a singular illustration of the numberless instances which 
may occur to the curious mind, I may allude to one where we 
should scarcely expect taste, with her most delicate tread, to 
intrude. It is taste in the color of mourning dress* In 
Western Europe and America, black only accords with the 
sombre, lugubrious feeling of the lacerated heart. The 
Chinese, the Japanese, the Siamese, select ivhite for the same 
purpose; the Turks, blue and violet; the Ethiopians, ^r^y; 
the Peruvians, mouse color ; the Persians, brown ; the Egyp- 
tians, yellow. 

Other varieties of mental structure and furniture appear in 
connection with memory^ imagination, self-reliance^ trust and 
suspicion, belief and scepticism. Memory is a curious commodity, 
and perhaps no faculty of the mind presents more interesting 
diversities in its exercise. Not only is there every variety as 
to strength and retentiveness of memory, from the memory that 
almost literally retains every thing that was ever committed 
to it, to the memory that almost as literally retains nothing, 
but there is a variety in quality quite striking. Some have 



190 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

a remarkable memory for names ; others for figures, dates and 
dry statistics. These latter may forget their own children's 
names, yet give you correctly the year and day on which Tom 
Thumb was born, or the year and day on which their grandfather 
sold the old horse : while others can scarcely remember an isolat- 
ed fact at all, yet can call up almost any thing by association. 

Some men are naturally ^elf-reliant^ expecting aid only 
through their own resources and exertions. They are the bold, 
the industrious, enterprising, and the finally successful. Others 
are as naturally timid, distrustful of self, and dependent on 
others. In like manner, one class is trustful, confiding, easy 
to believe — perhaps credulous. Such are neither capricious 
nor suspicious. Another has a strange proclivity to question, 
cavil, suspect, and to slide — if not to plunge — into scepti- 
cism and final infidelity. 

Or we might refer to altitudes of mind and diversities of 
genius^ and we should have illustrations in point. Here we 
meet a mechanical genius — there a talent for business, or an 
aptitude to teach — or a " a musical talent " and taste. Then 
there are minds that are always on the wing of adventure, 
never satisfied to be circumscribed within the boundaries of 
the known, but forever prying and plunging into the unknown 
— lovers of travel, discovery and invention — seekers for, or in- 
ventors of some new thing. 

"We have minds that lead, and minds that must be led ; 
minds that creep and minds that soar ; minds that plunge into 
the dark and carry their own light with them ; and minds that 
can flourish only in the light of others : all sorts of minds ; 
and none so low, or small that is not filling some nook or 
corner, or chink or crevice in the great world of thought and 



THE USE OF MENTAL YAEIETIES. 191 

activity ; and none so liigli and comprehensive that it does 
not find a field of action fitted to its scope and magnitude, and 
vrhich is not subserving the great ends of humanity. 

We would not here omit a reference at least to one other 
class of mental varieties. It is the " universal genius," or the 
man of such a versatility of talent, and accumulation of ac- 
quisitions, as to give a sort of universality to his genius. Such 
a mind is a rare variety in itself, and especially because it is a 
beautiful blending into one of a great number of other va- 
rieties. 

We have spoken chiefly of original diversities of mind. If 
we here bring into the account, culture^ hahit^ the state 
of society and the influence on mind of human progress, w^e 
shall find the number of diversities multiplied almost inde- 
finitely — diversities of knowledge, of capacity, and of every 
conceivable development of mental resources. But we trench 
our next thought, viz : ^ 

The use of such variety in the world of mind — the practi- 
cal benefits which accrue to human afi*airs from such a singular 
arrangement. 

By means of the present diversified character of the human 
intellect every science is prosecuted, and every department of 
knowledge cultivated ; every calling, trade or profession is 
brought into being, and its duties discharged ; and every sta- 
tion in life filled. The resources of the earth are by this 
means developed, and every want of man met. The sciences 
are the legitimate fruits of these different proclivities of the 
human mind ; and the arts are but the natural ofispring of the 
sciences. 

Theology, music, logic, rhetoric, furnish prolific illustrations 



192 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

to our purpose. We call to mind such men as Whitefield, 
Edwards, Handel, and Sir Isaac Newton. But for such master- 
minds as Edwards and Chalmers, who would have so ably un- 
folded and defended the doctrines of natural and revealed re- 
ligion, and shown the rock on which they stand ? And while 
Edwards, by the exercise of a masterly intellect, was digging 
deep, and laying the foundations of modern theological science, 
Whitefield, and others mighty to speak and act, brought the 
living, burning truth home to the heart, and fixed it on the 
conscience. "We may not say, who do the church the greater 
service, her scholars, her orators, or her writers. She can 
dispense with neither, and yet prosper. The one defend her 
from the attacks of the enemy, and rear her bulwarks high and 
strong. Others record her triumphs, and stereotype on the 
enduring page every fresh memorial of her covenant God^ 
Others, in all the tenderness of love, and in all the pathos of 
sacred eloquence, urge her claims on the attention of dying 
men ; or in the harsh thunders of Sinai, denounce the curse on 
the unbelieving. 

Or we discover the same diversity of gifts by a reference to 
Whitefield and Handel. The one was in eloquence what the 
other was in sacred song ; the one appealing, through the un- 
derstanding to the heart and conscience, calling on men every- 
where to repent and turn to God ; the other drawing out and 
bearing upward, as a sweet incense before the altar of the upper 
sanctuary, the devout aspirations of the new-born soul. There 
was an " air, a soul, a movement in the oratory of Whitefield," 
which created indescribable emotions in his vast assemblies. 
Handel equally electrified the multitudes in Westminster 
Abbey. His power of song, while he performed the Messiah, 



DIFFERENT PEOCLIYITIES OF MEN. 193 

raised them to their feet. And yet greater wonders did 
Whitefield, when preaching the Messiah to the scores of thou- 
sands in Moorfields. 

And here it will not be out of place to add, that Whitefield 
in another respect, furnishes a remarkable illustration of our 
theme. I refer now to a singular variety in the mode of pre- 
senting and enforcing the same Divine truth. Whitefield is 
said to have preached eighteen thousand sermons. " These," 
says his biographer, ^^were but so many variations on two key- 
notes : man guilty, and may obtain forgiveness ; and man im- 
mortal, and must ripen here for endless weal or woe hereafter." 
Or, to reduce the whole to two words, it is sin and salvation 
— guilt and condemnation under the law, and pardon through 
Christ, and heaven through his righteoQsness. 

And what does not science and general literature owe to 
the same diversity of intellectual gifts and endowments. A 
Newton is propelled on, as by an irrepressible proclivity, to 
devote his days and nights for a long course of years to the 
higher branches of mathematics, and then to apply his vast 
attainments to his wonderful astronomical investigations and 
discoveries. Erenburgh, by a proclivity not less to be admired, 
plies his microscope, and lays open to view a universe of ani- 
malcula, not the less the wonder of the world. Franklin tames 
the lightning and brings it harmless to the ground; while 
Morse, inspired with the true spirit of modern science — the spirit 
to make all science practical and the real handmaid of art and 
human progress — made Franklin's tamed lightning the winged 
messenger to carry with lightning-speed intelligence around 
the world. 

And while one class of men is thus impelled, as by a divine 
9 



194 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

impulse, to labor indefatigably and unceasingly to lay open 
to the gaze of man tlie boundless expanse of the heavens ; and 
another, to reveal the wonders of the microscopic universe ; 
and others, most enthusiastically to devote their untiring 
energies to the useful handicrafts of life, — a Milton, a PoUok, 
a Byron, create worlds of their own, and invite us to traverse 
lands which exist only in the airy dreams of fancy, and to 
view landscapes, and to visit great and gorgeous cities, and to 
converse with men who only move and act and speak in the 
imagination of the poet. 

Variety, then, is something more than the " spice of life." 
It is the very gist and essence of all practical life. But for 
the diversities of gifts, genius and talent, all but one of all the 
professions, trades, callings and pursuits of life would be at 
once annihilated. We might in such a case have philosophers, 
but no poets ; historians without mathematicians or more than 
one kind of scholars. If all had a genius or talent for the 
same mechanical craft, or for the same sort of business, or the 
same profession ; if all had a talent or taste for commerce, or 
agriculture, or manufacturing, where would be the scope for 
their enterprise — where, a market for their products ? They 
must themselves be their only customers. Could we succeed, 
as some would wish, in bringing all minds to the same level 
and in shaping them in the same mould, so that all men 
should be of the same mind^ all think alike, all have the same 
opinions, aptitudes and tastes, and the same degree of cultiva- 
tion and improvement, we should, instead of a good, have pro- 
duced an evil. We should at once destroy the whole web of 
human society, arrest all human progress, and bring all human 
affairs to a dead stand. It would be impossible then that man 



SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS AND HUMAN PEOGRESS. 195 

should advance beyond the rudest state of barbarism. Sup- 
pose every man's genius should lead him to pursue the business 
of the agriculturalist ; indispensable as this calling is, what 
then would be the condition of the world'? Without the 
designing mind and the skillful execution of the mechanic and 
the artist, what sort of houses (if houses they would be) should 
we Uve in ? What sort of furniture would adorn our houses 
and subserve our comfort and convenience"? What sort of 
utensils should we work with, and what sort of machinery 
would minister to the supply of our wants 1 Who would build 
our ships, construct our railways, invent our telegraphs, smelt 
our iron, and mould, shape and hammer it into every con- 
ceivable form of utility? Where would be commerce, the 
great exchange trade of the world ; and what would be the 
navigation of the world, beyond that of paddling a log canoe? 

Indeed, were all men possessed of the same powers and 
aptitudes of mind, all the present beautiful diversity of charac- 
ter and pursuit which constitutes the main spring of society 
and civilization, w^ould be almost entirely wanting. But hap- 
pily there is, corresponding to the endless variety of services to 
be performed and avocations to be pursued, a like diversity in 
the talents and tastes of men, developing a most beautiful 
adaptation "between the objects of human knowledge and the 
powers of human knowledge." And we cannot here too pro- 
foundly admire, as a beneficent, providential arrangement, the 
strong predilections which men show for their own callings or 
pursuits ; and their propensities to magnify^ every man his 
own " office." Such predilections and propensities may often 
savor, disagreeably, of personal vanity; but their existence 
and exercise are most salutary and essential to the well-being 



196 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of society. Without this partiality of every man for his own 
profession or calling, no class of men would excel in any par- 
ticular department of labor ; most departments would not be 
pursued at all — the idea of a division of labor would soon be 
lost, and society would cease to advance and soon return to its 
normal state. 

But by the singular distribution of her gifts among her 
children, and by men's equally singular proclivities, nature has 
provided for the highest welfare of man, by making them 
mutually dependent and mutually helpful. 

This singular versatility of talent and genius, indeed, 
bears on it the stamp of divinity. So beautifully and aptly 
are all things provided and adjusted to meet all the varied 
wants of man, that we are in danger of overlooking the Divine 
wisdom in such arrangements — how one man is endow^ed with 
an extraordinary inventive genius, another with as extraordi- 
nary capabilities of execution, and a third with a spirit of 
daring enterprise. Of the tw^o former we have a striking and 
well-known illustration in the case of a famous artificer men- 
tioned in the chronicles of the house of Israel, during their 
wanderings in the Desert of Arabia.* It has been a matter 
of much speculation how such a structure as the Tabernacle, 
and such furniture and ornaments, could have been fabricated 
under such circumstances. There was displayed in the struc- 
ture itself, and in the utensils to be used in it, and the vest- 
ments and ornaments, a perfection of artistic skill which quite 
astonishes us, 

Kecurring to the account given of that extraordinary work, 

* Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur. — Ex. 31 : 2-6. 



THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS. 197 

it will be seen at once that almost every ingenious art was 
brought into requisition — carving in wood and stone — the 
working of every sort of metal — the compounding of metals 
and forming alloys and amalgams — the cutting and setting of 
precious stones — gilding, washing, plating — " overlaying with 
gold." Then there was the construction of the most delicate 
and elegant fabrics, as silks and fine linen, for vestments, cur- 
tains, veils, fringes, loops, tassels ; and the preparation of skins 
for useful and ornamental purposes ; and the art of dyeing the 
most beautiful and permanent colors — ^blue, purple, scarlet. In- 
deed, every curious art seems to have found a place for its dis- 
play in this (in that age and place) wonderful structure and 
its more wonderful appurtenances. 

But whence such skill ? Whence that " spirit in man " to 
devise and execute such workmanship at the particular time 
when it was needed! It was the ^'inspiration of the Al- 
mighty." The mind of the individual referred to was endowed 
with the taste and talent for just such works ; and then his 
mind was stirred up to devise and execute them, and to in- 
struct others in the same arts. 

The account we have of this matter is in these words : "See, 
the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son 
of Hur, of the tribe of Judah ; and he hath filled him with the 
spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge, 
and in all manner of workmanship : and to devise curious 
works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in the 
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make 
any manner of cunning work. And he hath put it into his 
heart that he may teach (others). Them hath he filled with 
wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraveii. 



198 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KI:N-G. 

and of the cunning workman, and of tlie embroiderer, in blue, 
and in purple, and in scarlet^ and in fine linen, and of the 
weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that de- 
vise cunning work." 

I do not suppose that Bezal eel's mechanical inspiration, if 
the term be allowed, and his call to his work differed essen- 
tially in kind, though it might in degree, from the various 
tastes and endowments which, in every age fit certain classes 
of men to pursue, and which become the impelling causes to 
their pursuing such handicrafts, as the wants of the respective 
ages in vAich they live, require. The instance serves to illus- 
trate the Divine control over all the springs of human action, 
and such a wise direction of all the varied activities of man 
as to bring about all the multifarious purposes of the Divine 
wisdom and benevolence. 

We do not wish that every man should think and act as we 
do, and be as we are. We have an interest that he should 
differ from us. We would not have all to be of one craft, or 
calling or occupation ; or all possessed of the like ingenuity and 
skill. We wish not only the privilege to do our own thinking 
in our own way, but we wish to think for others, and to have 
others think for us. We wish to carry on an exchange trade 
in thought ; and if all were producing the same intellectual 
commodities as ourselves, we should find but a meagre market 
for our productions. And as we wish in return to avail our- 
selves of the intellectual productions of others, it would be no 
trifling calamity to find that others had none to dispose of, ex- 
cept such as our own storehouse is crammed with. All literary 
and scientific barter would be at an end, as we should have no 



THE REPELLANCY OF OPPOSITE MINDS. 199 

occasion to buy, and could not sell : and of the '' making of 
books there would finally be an end." 

And if our mechanical skill or aptitude for any particular 
business or station were only that of our neighbor, and his of 
his neighbor, the world over, we should again be in a plight quite 
as hopeless. Should we invent, or produce some rare or useful 
article, we want a world about us, who, not possessed of the in- 
ventive skill and able to produce the same, will patronize us and 
be profited by our invention, and in their turn, invent or produce 
something which we need. It is the very life of the world that 
one is what another is not, and can do what another cannot do. 

" There is a strong disposition in men of opposite minds to 
despise each other. A grave man cannot conceive what is the 
use of wit in society ; a person who takes a strong common- 
sense view of the subject, is for pushing out by the head and 
shoulders an ingenious theorist, who catches at the slightest 
and faintest analogies ; and another man, who scents the ridic- 
ulous from afar, will hold no commerce with him who tests 
exquisitely the fine feeling of the heart, and is alive to nothing 
else ; whereas talent is talent, and mind is mind, in all its 
branches ! Wit gives to life one of its best flavors ; common 
sense leads to immediate action, and gives society its daily 
motion ; large and comprehensive views cause its annual rota- 
tion ; ridicule chastises folly and impudence, and keeps men in 
their proper sphere ; subtilty seizes hold of the fine threads of 
truth ; analogy darts away in the most sublime discoveries ; 
feeling paints all the exquisite passions of man's soul, and re- 
wards him, by a thousand inward visitations, for the sorrows 
that come from without. God made it all ! It is all good ! 
We must despise no sort of talent ; they all have their separate 



200 THE PALACE OF THE GKEAT KING. 

duties and uses — all the happiness of man for their object ; 
they all improve, exalt and gladden life." 

We shall here be excused for transcribing from the Pliila- 
delphia Ledger^ the following very apposite remarks, on the 
"value of scientific men." And in like manner we might 
speak of other classes of men. 

" To many, the scientific men of a nation seem but drones, 
without practical utility, trying all sorts of impracticable ex- 
periments in their laboratories, mixing acids and alkalies, and 
talking learnedly on the subjects far removed from practical 
life, but doing nothing for mankind. Solomon tells us, too, of 
a poor wise man who delivered a city, yet no man remembered 
him. 

"If there is one sign of these times more hopeful than 
another, it is that scientific men are, as a class, more honored 
than at any former period of the world's history. James "Watt, 
who discovered the steam engine, has enabled England, with a 
population of 25,000,000, to do work that as many hundred 
millions of men could not have done without. It is thus that 
science has created the fabulous wealth of that monarchy. She 
is doing the same at this moment for our own country. Who 
can tell the value to this nation of the life of such a man as 
Fulton, with his steamboats, or even above him, our own glori- 
ous old Franklin, who wrested the lightning from heaven, 
and the sword from the hands of tyrants % Doubtless many 
a man, who boasted of his own great practical business powers, 
smiled, if in passing he marked him, with kite and key, de- 
monstrating, in this, our own city, the identity of lightning 
and electricity, and laying the foundation thus for those elec- 
trical telegraphs now ready to convey tidings from continent 



THE VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 201 

to continent round the globe in an instant. Who can calcu- 
late the value of such a man as Professor Morse to the country 
and to the world 'f 

'' The scientific man, then, is of value to the community 
just in proportion to the amount of labor he saves to other 
men while producing similar results. Liebig has increased the 
production of all the farms in England, by applying the princi- 
ples of analytic chemistry to soils, manures and agricultural re- 
sults generally — he has been worth millions of bushels of wheat 
already to Europe. The scientific medical men of that coun- 
try have lengthened the average of life several years. The 
same is true of mental science. He who has a better know- 
ledge of those laws which enable a man at once to distinguish 
truth from error, can write a book which will save thousands 
from some popular mistake, or from years of laborious thought, 
enabling men to form just conclusions without delay. His 
empire is over the mind of man." 

Without inventive genius and the love of adventure, and 
research, and discovery, who would enlarge the boundaries of 
knowledge ; who search out the dormant properties of sub- 
stances, and bring to light and introduce to the notice of man, 
the long-hidden resources of n.ature, and make them to sub- 
serve the purposes of his comfort or improvement 1 As in the 
progress of the world human affairs advance towards their 
grand climacteric, and the wants of the race are vastly multi- 
plied, the diversified mental resources of man are found, at 
every step of this progress, to be quite adequate to the demand. 
Not a new article of food or clothing is needed by man ; not a 
new product ; not a new element of power is wanted, but some 
one is found to have the sagacity to discover it, or the in- 
9* 



202 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

genuity to produce it. By means of this extraordinary versa 
tility of talent, every department of human improvement is ad 
vanced, and all the wants of man promptly met. Some navi- 
gate unknown seas and discover lands before unknown ; others 
ransack nature for new substances, or form for use new com- 
pounds from substances already known. 

But for these " diversities of gifts " who would write our 
books, edit our papers and journals ; who print, bind, and cir- 
culate them ? Who would be our statesmen ; who search into 
the intricacies of law and be able to dispense justice and de- 
fend human rights ; who study the healing art, investigate the 
laws of health and life, acquaint themselves with the nature 
and history of diseases, and search out remedies *? And who 
would delve into the mine of sacred truth and search out its 
rich stores, and, in season and out of season, impart to every 
one as he have need 1 Who would unfold the beauties and 
excellences of the Word, elucidate its doctrines, enforce its 
precepts, and administer its consolations to them that mourn, 
impart knowledge to the ignorant, and proclaim pardon to the 
guilty? 

And but for the peculiar mental proclivities which create 
the taste and furnish the needed qualifications, who would 
occupy the eminently useful and responsible position of 
teachers of our youth ? Many a man may build a ship, or 
navigate a boisterous ocean, or write a learned treatise on 
philosophy or mathematics, who cannot " teach the young idea 
how to shoot." This is, like every other department in the 
great business of life, a profession or calling that requires its 
peculiar aptitudes and qualifications. 

But our idea needs no further illustration. Yet we may 



EVERY MAN HAS HIS OWN PLACE. 203 

be excused if we pause a sliort moment to draw an inference — 
viz. : that it is a matter of superlative importance that every 
man should be able to find his place ^ and then in his own ap- 
propriate, fitting place, do his duty. Every man has a place, 
a business, a calling, for which he is better fitted than for any 
other ; and his own success and comfort, as well as the good 
of the whole, depends on his keeping his place and doing his 
duty there. 

And we might deduce another inference, which is, that the 
position or calling of an individual is of itself a matter of 
vastly less consequence than the manner in which the duties 
of the position are performed. All the callings and positions of 
life are but links in the same great chain. We may not, 
therefore, make comparisons of their relative or real importance. 
All are important to the integrity of the chain, and to the 
securing of the great ends. 

" From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, 
Tenth, or ten-thousandth, breaks the chain alike." 

The only fortunate position, the position to be coveted, is 
that in which the right man finds the right place. And the 
only honorable position is that in which the right man in his 
right place, patiently, perseveringly and honestly discharges 
the duties of his place. But we tread on the confines of our 
next topic. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Man and his Yarieties, in his endlessly-diversified conditions of life. 

Again, we may say it takes all grades, castes and conditions 
of men to make a world. We need take but a cursory glance 
over the face of society to see that there is very great in- 
equalities in their temporal condition ; and not only inequalities 
in condition, but diversities the strangest in respect to social, 
civil, domestic and religious habits and usages. The diversi- 
fied character of the earth's surface, its varied climates, soils, 
productions, do but correspond to an equally diversified charac- 
ter and condition of the nations and tribes which are nourished 
by them. Never is human sagacity more completely non- 
plussed than in its attempts to account, on any natural prin- 
ciples, for the singularly-diversified conditions of human life. 
You may select, for an example, a score of young men, and 
suppose them to start out in life with equal fortune, talents, 
opportunities and prospects of success, and their future life 
will scarcely admit of comparison — only of contrast. The 
path of life, of each from the other, will be a divergence almost 
from the outset. With the same facilities of success no two 
will succeed alike. Under the very circumstances in which 
one prospers, another will meet disaster and downfall. It is 
not in man that walketh to direct his steps. The lot is cast 
into the lap, but the directing of it is of the Lord. 



PROVIDENTIAL DISPARITIES. 205 

Hence we need not be surprised at the singular disparities 
among men. There will the high and the low, the rich and 
poor, the wise and the ignorant, the industrious and thriving, 
the idle and beggarly. There are perhaps no two of the whole 
human family whose temporal condition is precisely the same. 
Some have more than heart can wish, and know not when sor- 
row cometh ; others are poor and cast down and afflicted, 
strangers to light and joy. The singular disparity in the con- 
ditions of men has been a subject of profound perplexity, 
especially to those towards whom Providence has seemed to be 
less propitious. 

The causes of these disparities may be providential, or such 
as we cannot control, and for which we are not responsible ; 
or they may be personal, and matters of praise or dispraise on 
Dur part. Yet whichever it may be, a little reflection will 
show that all these inequalities and varieties of man's condition 
here are permitted and wisely directed, and made to con- 
tribute to the greatest good of the whole. 

The great Heavenly Parent, who in all his arrangements 
is working out a great system, and who forms and executes all 
his designs in reference to the great end to be attained, is 
doubtless the Author of these endlessly-diversified conditions 
of man. No other system would fully develop every trait of 
human character, every capability, capacity and susceptibility, 
both physical, mental and moral ; and no other plan would 
have secured the great ends of the present economy of things : 
that is, provided for every necessity of man, and secured the 
discharge of every conceivable duty, and the doing of every 
needful work, and the filling of every station on the broad field 
of life, and the pursuit of every science and every department 



206 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

of knowledge, which tends to the consummation of the one 
great plan. But for these varied conditions of man, many a 
useful pursuit and necessary calling would be left unprovided 
for. 

** Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest. 
More rich, more wise ; hut who infers from hence 
That such are happier, shocks all common sense." 

4i^0ur idea may, at least imperfectly, be illustrated thus : the 
proprietor of some great business concern — say a great manu- 
facturing establishment — is engaged to realize from it every 
legitimate advantage. In order to secure the end, work of 
every conceivable kind is to be done ; and, of course, men of a 
correspondingly varied skill and capacity must be employed, 
from the intelligent superintendent or head agent, the man of 
address, position and influence, to the scullion and sweeper. 
Men of all sorts of skill and ingenuity are brought in requisi- 
tion, — from him who can invent the most ingenious machinery 
and form the most delicate portions of it, to him who can only 
hammer out a plain piece of iron, or lay a rude stone in the 
foundation of the building. How many cunning artificers in 
wood, and iron, and stone, and brass, and copper, and almost 
every metal, before the buildings and their machinery are ready 
for the work of the manufacturer ; and then what varied skill 
and talent, and power of muscle, each characterizing a respec- 
tive grade and position in life, are needful to the carrying out 
of the proprietor's main and final end. How much business 
talent and financiering ; how much mathematical accuracy and 
philosophical research in reference to the materials, the struc- 
ture and the fitting up of the machinery ; and what difierent 



THE WORLD A GREAT MACHINE. 207 

degrees of intelligence and what variety of character are en- 
gaged in the daily operation of this machinery, and in all the 
details of planning the fabrics to be made, directing every in- 
dividual workman and marketing the products. It is a minia- 
ture world, and it gives employment to a few thousand men, 
scarcely two of whom holds precisely the same position, or are 
fitted to do precisely the same work. 

The world over which our great Proprietor presides is a 
great and complicated piece of machinery, and the end to be 
gained is of infinite worth. The carrying out of its details in- 
volves the necessity of instruments and agents of every possible 
grade, from him who sits on the pinnacle of political power, 
as ruler or king, or him who rules in the world of letters or of 
science, or of financial and mechanical skill, to the delver in 
the mine^ or the diver in the ocean, or the drainer of the 
swamp, or the sweeper of the chimney. An infinite variety of 
positions is to be filled, each important, each essential to the 
completeness of the great plan. 

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole." 

The harmony, then, of this great whole, the good to be 
accomplished by its working ; the good to the individual and 
the good to the entire race as a whole, depends not on the 
rivalries and strifes and struggles of men to get out of the 
position for which they are fitted and evidently destined, but 
on the fact that each man should faithfully and contentedly do 
his duty there. 

*' What if the foot ordained the dust to tread, 
Or hand to toil, aspired to be the head ? 



208 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

What if the head, the eye, the ear repined 
To serve mere engines to the ruHng mind. 
Just as absurd for any part to claim 
To be another in this general frame." 

We do not mean that a man may not aspire to better his 
condition, or change his position for one for which he is better 
fitted, and where his power of body and of mind may be more 
available in the great arena of life. The very aspirations 
which may and often ought to fill the soul of the young man 
to make more of himself than he is at present, may be taken 
as the intimations of Providence that he is not now occupying 
the position for which he is the best fitted, where he may use 
his capabilities to the best advantage. 

I have intimated that the causes and the reasons of the 
singularly varied conditions of men are to be found in the dis- 
posings of a wise Providence. Yet there are proximate causes 
of these conditions which should not be overlooked. Man is, 
in an important sense, the framer of his own fortune, and if he 
is out of position^ he generally has himself to thank for it ; or, 
if he is successful, he is, under God, the author of his good for- 
tune. The truth is, men, by their different degrees of indus- 
try, enterprise and cultivation of mind, and by the application 
of the various resources given them, and the improvement of 
opportunities, indefinitely diversify their own conditions, and 
then Providence uses them in these diversified conditions, to 
carry out his equally diversified purposes. Men are furnished 
by Providence with the raw material^ whether it be of 'mind 
or muscle, of skill or opportunity, and then the working up of 
this material is left very much to their own forethought and 
application ; or, Providence, in other words, furnishes the foun- 



DIVERSITIES HOW ESSENTIAL. 209 

dation plot, and tlie inherent skill and power, and time and 
opportunity and materials ; then leaves man to construct the 
edifice — to work out his own fortune — to form his own condi- 
tion in life. 

But, however originated, whether as an arrangement of 
Providence, or the creations of man, there can be no doubt 
that all these diversities of fortune and station are essential to 
the greatest good. It is a wise and gracious appointment of 
Providence. " Were there no diversity of wealth and station, 
we should be deprived of many of the comforts, conveniences 
and assistances which we now enjoy. Every one would be 
obliged to provide for himself food, drink, clothing, furniture, 
shelter, medicines and recreations ; and, in seasons of sickness, 
danger and distress, he would have few or none to alleviate 
his affliction and contribute to his comfort." But by means 
of the present arrangement, all the several capacities and en- 
dowments of mankind are beautifully brought into play, and 
all "in those lines of active exertion," for which they are fitted 
best to subserve the interests of general society. " One is pre- 
paring the leather, another is making for us the shoe; one 
is tending the sheep on mountains, another is wearing the car- 
pet, or preparing the cloth for our clothing. Some are delving 
in the mine, or smelting the ore, or tempering the steel, and 
forming the ten thousand implements of use among men ; 
others are bufieting the waves on unknown seas, to bring us the 
luxuries of other lands. Some are wearying their brains by 
day and by night in writing for us ; others are exercising their 
skill and ingenuity in printing what they write. Some are 
preparing grammars, dictionaries, and all sorts of elementary 
books for learners ; others are contributing their quota to the 



210 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

common weal, as teachers: and so, through every class and 
grade, each supplying the lack of the other, and each contrib- 
uting something of his own to the general stock."* 

Hence it is, the whole human family are strangely constituted 
in a state of dependence one on another. No man liveth to him- 
self. There is a mutual dependence — not among men only of the 
same condition in life, but scarcely less among men of different 
conditions. I do not know that the poor are more dependent 
on the rich than the rich are on the poor. The king is nothing 
without his subjects. The rich man would soon be without his 
purple and fine linens, and sumptuous fare, but for the untiring 
toils of the humble laborer ; and the man who blesses the world 
with his valuable mental attainments, looks in his turn that he 
may share in the benefits of every other handicraft of industry. 
There is through all the varied ranks of society this mutual 
and necessary dependence. And the beauty and perfection of 
life consists very much in a suitable adjustment of all its mu- 
tual relations, the prompt and cheerful discharge of mutual 
duties, and the free exercise of all those feelings of benevolence 
on the one hand, and of gratitude on the other, which the right 
discharge of duty secures. 

The merit of life, then, consists not in oeing able to 
extinguish all distinctions in society and to bring all to one 
level, but in the harmonious working of the great machine of 
human activity, as the great Disposer has arranged it. The 
bringing the mortar and the laying the brick are quite as es- 
sential to the existence of the mansion to be erected, as the 
skill of the architect or the ingenious devices of the carver anj 

* Dr. Thomas Dick. 



DISTINCTIONS THEMSELVES NOT EVIL. 211 

the glazier. He that honestly fulfils the duties of a low con- 
dition, is vastly more to be honored than he that neglects or 
badly performs the duties of a high position. The one should 
be ashamed of himself, and the other should not be ashamed of 
his position. 

** Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part ; there all the honor lies." 

The evil lies not in the distinctions themselves, but in the 
discontent, and restiveness, and pride, and spirit of insubordi- 
nation, which are all the time attempting to subvert the wise 
ordinations of Providence. But for the emulations and strifes, 
the pride and ambition which disturb the harmonious working 
of the great machine in all its ten thousand parts, all would 
move delightfully and harmoniously forward, and " every sta- 
tion and rank would contribute, in its sphere, to the prosperity 
and happiness of another. For the poor cannot do without 
the rich, nor the rich without the poor, the prince without his 
subjects, nor subjects without wise and enlightened rulers and 
equitable laws. All are linked together by innumerable ties ; 
and the recognition of these ties and the practice of the recip- 
rocal duties which arise out of them, form the source of indi- 
vidual happiness and the bonds of social enjoyment." 

Numerous and endlessly varied as human wants are, and 
multifarious as are the positions to be occupied, yet as numer- 
ous and correspondingly varied are the resources and endow- 
ments of men, qualifying them to fill them all. 

There is, then, more truth than triteness in the maxim: 
It takes all sorts of men to maTce a world: all ranks, castes and 
conditions ; men of all sorts of dispositions and idiosyncrasies — 



212 THE PALACE OP THE GREAT KING. 

of all kinds of habits, aptitudes and appetencies — the high, the 
low, the rich, the poor ; the yielding and the uncompromising 
— the stern, the unbending, the marble-cheeked and the iron- 
sided, to breast the assaults of savagery, and to hold with a strong 
arm the lawless and disobedient, the wicked and unreasonable. 
There are needed, too, the skilful and inventive, the shrewd 
and shiftless — the ruler and the leader, and those to he ruled 
and led 

All have their uses ; some directly promote human happi- 
ness and improvement and the great ends of life ; and some 
indirectly. Some directly generate, cherish and mature the 
graces and virtues of life, others are but the indirect occasions 
of such results. Some have much to do in the formation of our 
characters ; others are chiefly useful in trying these characters. 
They give, for example, patience her perfect worlc. 

Hence the singular variety of condition which we meet 
among men. But we quite mistake if we circumscribe the 
skill, influence and the final uses of all these singularly varied 
conditions to the present life. They are designed by a Benefi- 
cent Providence to be the occasions of rearing an infinite 
variety of plants for the Garden above. In due time the great 
Vinedresser will transplant them into the celestial Paradise, 
where they will flourish all the better for their short wintering 
process amidst the rude blasts or the parching droughts of an 
earthly atmosphere. 

We may therefore rest assured that, in spite of all attempts 
to equalize the condition of man — the tendency of good laws 
and human institutions to protect and bless the humble and 
to raise them to a better condition — it remains a matter of fact 
(and is likely to), that the condition of man is ahnost as varied 



i 



A THEEEFOLD VARIETY. 213 

as men are numerous. The difference may be of moral worth, 
of mental acquisition, of the possession of earthly pelf, or of 
honor or office — of accident or the result of hard applied indus- 
try — it may be of praise or of blame — for immediate good or 
for evil — a righteous dispensation of Providence, or a result of 
human pride and folly. We speak of the fact, and may be in- 
dulged in a closing thought as to the design. 

The virtue of life consists in living in the world on suita- 
ble terms with all In this are developed all the varied excel- 
lencies of our natures, and all the diversified graces of our 
Eeligion. Here, by the way, is discovered a threefold variety : 
a variety in our moral constitution, fitting us for the exercise 
of all the sympathies which the varied conditions of life about 
us require ; a variety of religious qualifications suited to the 
same demands, and a corresponding variety in the wants of 
men. 

"Were there no disparity in the conditions of men — were all 
on a level as to mind, morals, skill and ingenuity in turning 
their bodily and mental powers to useful purposes ; as to edu- 
cation, health, earthly possessions, influence and power, sorrow 
and joy, prosperity and adversity, where would be the room 
for the exercise of our varied graces, and the varied suscept- 
bilities of our natures *? Were there no poor to be relieved ; 
no ignorant to be instructed ; no abandoned to be reclaimed ; 
no sin to be rebuked ; no pain to be assuaged ; no affliction or 
distress to draw out the tear of sympathy, or solicit the hand of 
relief, there would be no play for the generous workings of the 
benevolence; no kindness or condescension ; no self-denial or 
sympathy. Or, were there none who could act as angels of 
mercy, there would be no such thing as gratitude, or the feeling 



214 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of obligation and dependence whicli does so much to bind the 
human family into one great brotherhood. 

We need, therefore, indulge no painful concern that there 
are too many sorts of people in the world. The only concern 
we need have is that we do our duties, each in the place and 
position which, in the kind orderings of Providence, have been 
assigned us. 

That man deserves the most of his country, and of the 
church, and of the whole family of man, who acts best his part 
in the sphere in which God has placed him. The fact that one 
duty or one sphere of action obviously devolves on a given indi- 
vidual,, and that he has aptitudes and capacities and likings 
for that particular field of activity, is the best possible indica- 
tion which another individual, differently capacitated, can have 
that he should look for his sphere of duty elsewhere. If every 
man did but understand his own aptitudes and capacities, and 
were satisfied to act in his own obviously destined sphere, there 
could be no clashings of interests, no invasions of others' rights, 
no intrusions into other men's departments of activity. 

And we decide quite at random when we undertake to pro- 
nounce on the greater importance of one post of duty, or one 
sphere of action over another. One may represent the tenth, 
another the ten thousandth link in the chain of the great 
whole, yet strike out either and the chain is alike broken. 
With the great Sovereign Euler there is neither great nor small 
— every thing, as he made and arranged it, is important — 
nothing non-essential, nothing indifferent. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

AsTEONOMiCAL Yarieties : No two "Worlds alike — Differ in Form, Bulk, Motion— 
Inhabitants — Moral Yarieties among Worlds— Eedemption tlie Grand Moral Ya- 
riety of our World. 

We have- no need to confine our researches to man, or to this 
pitiable speck of earth. Other worlds and other beings afford 
equally fit illustrations of our theme. We may, therefore, for 
the present quit the footstool of the Great King, to gaze on the 
magnificent dome of the great Palace. We shall find, pervad- 
ing the ten thousand sparkling worlds that bestud the concave 
of the heavens, the same principle of endless diversity. Varie- 
ty undoubtedly characterises every world that shines. 

No two suns, planets or satellites are alike. In shape, mo- 
tion and distances ; in velocity, diversity and bulk ; in lengths 
of days, years, and vicissitudes of seasons ; in climate, produc- 
tions and inhabitants ; in the scenery on their respective sur- 
faces — especially in their celestial scenery, and in the different 
appendages attached to them, as moons, rings or belts — they 
present the most wonderful exhibition of the wisdom and be- 
nevolence of God, in so variegating his works as to meet not 
only the necessities of his creatures, but to gratify their varying 
tastes, to please their senses and make them happy. 

No two systems or clusters of systems are alike. They dif- 
fer in form, magnitude, number of revolving bodies, and in the 



216 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

mode of their government. One is ruled by a magnificent 
body in the centre, wbich dispenses light and heat to the 
whole ; another has two, three or more centres, revolving, each, 
with its respective system about another. 

All the heavenly bodies, as far as we are acquainted, pre- 
sent a general uniformity of appearance and character. All 
are spherical, turn on their axis, and revolve about a central 
body. They resemble one another in so many respects, that 
we do not hesitate, speaking in general terms, to call them alike. 
And it is from their striking analogies that we deduce infer- 
ences as to the probability of their being inhabited, and 
governed by an internal economy similar to our own. But we 
shall find here too, amidst this general uniformity, an endless 
variety. 

We need not, at first, go beyond our own solar system. 
Indeed, if our proposition be established here — if this first fam- 
ily of the starry worlds be variegated, in the same interesting 
manner, as we have seen among terrestrial objects, it will go 
far to establish a strong probability that the same principle 
runs through all the magnificent systems which God has made. 

The following, borrowed from Sir John Herschel, may be 
taken as a just illustration of the comparative dimensions, and 
the relative distances of the several bodies which constitute our 
solar system : '' Suppose a well levelled field or bowling green 
a mile or two in extent and free from all obstructions. In the 
centre of this place is a globe of two feet in diameter. This 
represents the sun. At a distance from this of 82 feet, i. e., 
on the circumference of a circle of 164 feet in diameter, place 
a grain of mustard seed. This represents the planet Mercury. 
Place a pea for Venus on a circle of 284 feet diameter ; also a 



THE SUN AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 217 

pea for tLis, our earth, on a circle of 430 feet diameter; a 
large pin's head on a circle of 654 feet diameter, for Mars: 
grains of sand in orbits of 1,000 to 1,200 feet for Juno^ Ceres, 
Vesta and Pallas. To represent Jupiter, place a moderate 
sized orange in a circle nearly half a mile across ; Saturn^ a 
small orange on a circle four-fifths of a mile ; and Uranus^ a 
full sized cherry or a small plum on the circumference of a 
circle more than a mile and a half in diameter." 

This, at a mere glance, develops a pleasing variety through- 
out ; yet a few details will throw over the whole an additional 
interest. We begin with the sun. 

This differs from every other individual of the system, in its 
enormous dimensions — it being 1,000 times larger than Jupi- 
ter, the largest planet — 1,300,000 times larger than our earth, 
and more than 500 times larger than all the planets, satellites 
and comets belonging to our system ; — in its density — it being 
scarcely more than the specific gravity of water ; and in its 
being the luminous and illuminating body for the whole sys- 
tem. But for this peculiar feature the whole system would be 
shrouded in midnight darkness. And yet what makes this 
variety the more remarkable is, that the sun, after all, (as con- 
firmed by later discoveries), is not a luminous body, but an 
opake globe like the one we inhabit, the brilliancy of its ap- 
pearance and its illuminating properties, accompanied with 
heat, being produced by its peculiar atmosphere. 

From the sun, as the grand centre, we direct our steps to 
the first planet in the system, called Mercury. Though still 
on a ball that turns on its axis, and performs its annual revo- 
lution, is enlightened by the same sun, and cheered by the 

light of the same planets by night, as your native earth, yet 
10 



218 THE PALACE 0¥ THE GREAT KING. 

you would find yourself on a strange ball, differing from all 
ottisrs wtiicli revolve within the vast domains of our sun, and 
probably from any that shine in all the vast immensity of the 
heavens. The sun would thence present a surface seven times 
as large as he does to us, and shine with a sevenfold brightness, 
and, other things equal, pour forth a sevenfold intensity of 
heat. The earth would appear as a large star, and Venus as a 
small moon, six or seven times larger than our morning and 
evening star, giving to their nights the mild radiance of moon- 
light. You would, too, find yourself on a globe as dense as 
lead — flying round its centre with a velocity greater than any 
other planet — 100,000 miles per hour — and in a more eccentric 
orbit. Every object on its surface — every tree, shrub, flower ; 
mountain, river, landscape, would, from the profusion of the 
sun's radiance, appear in sevenfold splendor — on which our 
eyes might not for a moment gaze. The inhabitants of this 
unique planet, too, must form a distinct variety. Physical 
constitutions like ours could not exist — or, if exist, could not 
exercise their functions in such an atmosphere — could not see 
in such light or derive a subsistence from such a soil. 

But come with me again and I will show you another star 
diff'ering from this in glory. It is the beautiful and blushing 
Venus, a brilliant lamp amidst the lesser orbs of night — sweet 
harbinger of the morn, or the usher in of the soft evening twi- 
light. She turns on her axis like any other planet, and rolls 
on in her majestic orbit at a distance 08,000,000 of miles from 
the sun, yet as you alight on her surface you will find she 
adds another variety to the countless gems which bedeck 
the heavens. Venus is distinguished by the exceeding bril- 
liancy and beauty of her splendor. Her light (twice that of 



THE EARTH AND ITS VARIETIES. 219 

the earth) is so intense as to be distinctly seen by the tele- 
scope, in the day time, and " during the night the eye is so 
overpowered by its brilliancy as to prevent its surface and mar- 
gin from being distinctly perceived." This is not fully accounted 
for, but on the supposition that a great proportion of the ob- 
jects on its surface are fitted to reflect the sun's rays with 
peculiar splendor. Now add to this the fact (ascertained by 
telescopic observations) that this planet presents a most romantic 
diversity of surface — some of its mountains rising to the enor- 
mous elevation of twenty miles — and the whole, illuminated 
by such a solar radiance, exhibiting a scenery diversified and 
grand beyond any adequate conception, and you have a variety 
worthy of admiration. 

" The next in order is our Earth : opening your eyes on its 
celestial scenery the first peculiarity you discover is, that her 
nights are beautifully illuminated by a moon — accompanying 
her in all her annual rounds, and adding another to the variety 
which every where characterises the countless bodies which 
move through the heavens. The next characteristic peculiarity 
is the vast disproportion of land and water — three-fourths of 
the terraqueous globe being covered with water. Its surface, 
when viewed as a whole, is divided into four vast irregular 
belts or bands, extending north and^south, the two broadest 
of which are water. Though, perhaps, not of original struc- 
ture, but a result of the Deluge and a consequence of sin, yet 
this peculiarity distinguishes our planet from every other. No 
planet presents so variegated a surface — none so completely 
intersected, and cut up into continents, islands, oceans, seas, 
lakes, rivers, mountains, plains. And, aside from many origi- 
nal peculiarities of structure, the earth has been marred and 



220 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

mntilated by tlie ravages of sin, presenting, we hope, tlie 
melancholy pre-eminence of being the only world groaning un- 
der the malediction of its benevolent Author. 

The same may be said of the vicissitudes of the seasons^ In 
their existing state they produce an almost endless variety of 
beauty — and also of disaster and deformity. The horrors of 
winter ; the scorchings of heat ; desolating tornadoes ; appal- 
ling thunder storms, come in the revolutions of the seasons, as 
well as the beauty and fragrance of the spring, or the luxuri- 
ance of summer, or the bounties of autumn. Those desolating 
evils are, again, the sad peculiarities of the physical and moral 
derangement of our world, and probably of no other. 

One stride more, of 50,000,000 of miles from the orbit of 
the earth, and you stand on fiery Maes. Its surface is diversi- 
fied with land and water ; its seasons similar to ours, though 
more strongly marked, and nearly twice as long ; yet if you 
will look a little further you may see how Mars differs from 
our ball, and from all the shining spheres that bespangle the 
skies. She is in size but half as large^ and in density consid- 
erably less than the earth. An extensive and strangely dense 
atmosphere surrounds her, producing the red and fiery appear- 
ance which she exhibits, like the rising or setting sun when 
seen through vapors. Only about one-third of her surface is 
water. She receives from the sun not more than half the 
quantity of light enjoyed by the earth, and no moon (yet dis- 
covered) enlightens her dreary nights. 

But we must hasten our ethereal journey. We next meet, 
amidst the flying balls of ether, a singular variety. Having 
traversed 80,000,000 of miles from Mars we meet, within the 
distance of the next 41,000,000 of miles /oi^r very small plan- 



THE ASTEROIDS AND MIGHTY JUPITER. 221 

ets called asteroids ^ and named Vesta, Juno, Ceres, s>nd Pallas. 
Their diminutive size, their proximity to one another, and their 
vast distance from the sun, form an interesting variety in the 
garniture of the heavens. Their orbits are more eccentric and 
more inclined to the ecliptic than the other planets, and their 
seasons, of course, more strongly marked. And what is more 
singular, their orbits cross one another — the orbit of Vesta even 
crossing those of the other three, rendering it possible that in 
their annual rounds they may come in collision, with an em- 
brace that shall shatter them into a thousand atoms. In many 
respects this dwarfish family of worlds presents anomalies ex- 
ceedingly interesting to our present subject. 

Next in order comes mighty Jupiter, rolling on in magnifi- 
cent grandeur at the immense distance of 495,000,000 of miles 
from the sun, and occupying twelve of our years in completing 
one circuit. In vain you distend your vision to find another 
like him. A body of such immense magnitude — 1,400 times 
larger than the earth ; at such an enormous distance from the 
sun which holds him in his place ; wheeling in his orbit at the 
rate of 30,000 miles an hour ; and turning on his axis in nine 
hours (the length of his day) ; carrying along with him four 
moons ; and capable of sustaining a population 8,700 times 
greater than our earth — presents a novel spectacle, wonderful 
and sublime ; and affords a most magnificent specimen of the 
riches and wisdom of Heaven's great Architect. 

But Jupiter presents another feature yet more novel and 
grand, and more peculiarly his own. He is encased in a 
singular appendage of belts or bands, which surround him at 
an elevation (it is supposed) of 1,000 miles from the planet. 
These belts are from 5,000 to 10,000 in breadth, extending 



222 THE PALACE OF TPIE GREAT KING. 

quite across the planet. They have been discovered to ex- 
change places, or to move from one position to another in the 
space of a few hours, producing the most stupendous changes 
in the celestial scenery of that planet ; diversifying the face of 
their skies in a manner wholly inconceivable to us. This, 
together with the singular and rapid motions of the heavenly 
bodies as seen from Jupiter, on account of the inconceivably 
great velocity with which he turns on his axis (moving further, 
by 3,000 miles, in one hour than the earth does in twenty-four), 
must make a nocturnal scene on that planet grand beyond 
conception. Though so distant that the sun appears scarcely 
more than a brilliant star, yet Jupiter presents a peculiar 
splendor, exceeding in brilliancy even Mars» This is no doubt 
owing to other apparatus for the production of light, of which 
those belts may be the principal. 

But let us look in upon the next world, and see what of 
variety we may find there. Let imagination traverse 400,- 
000,000 of miles from Jupiter, and you meet, rolling on in the 
lone grandeur of his velocity, and in the illimitable immensity 
of space, the most interesting and magnificent body which 
shines in the heavens. There is nothing like it in the firma- 
ment. It has seven moons — a rare variety. But what singles 
out Saturn as so unique in the celestial canopy and makes 
him so striking a specimen of variety in the Divine w^orkman- 
ship, is the extraordinary rings which surround him. Belts 
too he has, yet differing from Jupiter's in this, that they are 
regular and immovable ; doubtless an integral part of the 
planet. 

But you pass unnoticed all other varieties : his encircling 
belts ; his seven moons, pouring down their silvery floods of 



SATUEN AND HIS SINGULAR BELTS. 223 

light ; his huge bulk, and his density not more than that of 
cork ; his immense distance from the sun, so that that lumi- 
nary appears but as a star, ninety times less than to us ; his im- 
mense year, equal to more than twenty-nine of ours, and his 
days of but ten hours, and your whole attention is directed to 
the strange phenomenon of the Rings. You see stretching 
from horizon to horizon across the whole arch of the firmament 
large semicircles of light, occupying one-fourth or one-fifth of 
the visible sky. They vary in brilliancy according to the 
time when viewed, or the position from which seen. At night 
they appear as resplendent as the moon ; in the day time dim 
like a cloudy arch. 

To enhance the beauty and sublimity of the scene, and to 
add to all an enchanting ^;ar^>^!y, these immense rings (200,000 
miles in diameter and one 20,000 in breadth) roll round the 
planet at the distance of 30,000 miles, in the short space of 
ten hours, presenting their diversified brilliancy. And what 
still enhances the grandeur of the scene, the two rings do not 
revolve in the same space of time, giving to the whole a yet 
greater variety of motion^ as well as a constant succession of 
scenery. What variety, then, in the celestial scenery of 
Saturn ! Two immense luminous arches, diversified by their 
own motions, and at night more diversified by carrying 
stamped upon them the shadow of Saturn ; the various aspects 
of seven moons, some rising, some setting, some at their 
meridian, some appearing as crescents, half moons, or full 
enlightened hemispheres, some eclipsed, others emerging from 
their dark beds, and all moving with tremendous velocity, give 
to this planet a character of its own. 

We must not stop to speculate on the use of these things. 



224 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

They not only contribute a magnificent variety to the crown 
jewels of the Great King, but afford a stupendous theatre for the 
existence and development of a countless number of intelligent 
beings. The whole amount of surface on the different sides of 
the rings is more than twenty-eight billion square miles, or 
588 times the area of the whole habitable portion of the earth. 
Now if we suppose these immense celestial territories to be 
inhabited (a very probable supposition, for who would surmise 
that such a palace would be fitted up for waste and desola- 
tion *?) they could accommodate a population of eight billions, 
or 10,000 times the present population of our globe. 

A word concerning Uranus, and our survey of the solar 
system is completed. On the orbit of Saturn, though at the 
distance of 900,000,000 miles from our starting point, the sun, 
yet we had completed but one half of our journey to Uranus, 
the exterior ball of our system.- Its distance is, of course, 
1,800,000,000 miles ; a distance, which, if traversed by a 
steam-carriage moving at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour 
would occupy 10,000 years. Here the sun has dwindled 
almost to a point, yet Uranus enjoys a compensation of six 
7noons, is eighty times larger than our earth, twenty times 
larger than all the planets of the solar system, save Jupiter 
and Saturn ; is of a density not greater than water ; moving 
in its inconceivably great orbit more slowly and majestically 
than any other planet, and occupying in the completion of his 
year no less than eighty-four of ours. 

These circumstances — and others might be discovered did 
our telescopes reach far enough — are sufficient to ensure a 
great variety of scenery^ in seasons, animals, inhabitants ; 



A SURVEY BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 225 

in productions and climate; and to distinguisli this planet 
from all others in the system. 

I have now taken a bird's-eye view of each of the worlds 
(the new planets excepted) which compose our system. We 
have found no two alike, but each most skilfully diversified 
with a beauty, sublimity and grandeur peculiarly its own. In 
shape, motion, distance; in velocity, density and bulk; in 
length of days, of years and vicissitudes of seasons ; in climate, 
productions and inhabitants ;" in the scenery on their respective 
surfaces, and more especially in their celestial scenery ; and in 
the singular appendages, useful or ornamental, attached to 
most of them, we have discovered the most wonderful exhibi- 
tion of the wisdom and benevolence of God in so variegating 
the works of his hands as to meet not only the necessities of his 
creatures, but to gratify their ever-varying tastes, to please 
their senses, and to make them happy in their present state 
of being. 

I am now prepared to invite you to embark on a more ad- 
venturous excursion, and, by a legitimate analogy, to extend 
the principle I am advocating to other systems and other clus- 
ters of systems, which constitute the boundless universe. 

Look, if you please, through Sir John Herschel's forty-feet 
telescope, pointed for a survey beyond the confines of our 
planetary system, and tell me what you see : 

"I see," says one, "stars of different magnitudes be- 
spangling the whole compass of vision, some exceedingly 
bright, some, but as the twinkling of a single ray of light." 

" But what a variegated scene," says another who applies 
his eye. " How one star differeth from another in glory ! 
10* 



226 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KI:N'G. 

Star after star appears as you steadily gaze, till the ^^hole field 
of vision becomes a sparkling sheet of worlds I " 

'' And what," exclaims another who has distended the pupil 
of his eye a little further than the rest, " what are those little 
lumifious clouds, or concentrations of confused light, which lie 
scattered in rich profusion throughout the entire compass of 
vision '^ " 

" Indeed," exclaims another in extasy intense, " do you 
see that these sparkling luminaries not only differ in dimen- 
sions, distances and motions, but they present an exquisite 
variety of color. Here is one red like crimson ; yonder shines 
one white as snow. One is yellow, another green ; one orange, 
its neighbor blue. Others blending the hues of different 
colors produce scenery rich, variegated and enchanting." 

And another, too intent to speak sooner, exclaims in 
all the enthusiasm of a Newton, " Is it possible that certain 
stars at which I have been gazing are not single stars, I have 
put on the magnifying power till I can see them to be double, 
triple, quadruple or multiple ^ 

A world of wonders indeed ! — but let us go back and ex- 
amine a little more leisurely, though briefly. 

You saw scattered over the field of space an indefinite num- 
ber of stars. These are suns, accompanied no doubt by their 
respective systems of planets , or worlds ; each occupying as 
much space in the great field of ether, and giving support and 
habitation to as great a number of intelligent beings, and 
affording as great a variety of plans, operations, uses and 
scenery, as the system we have examined. The nearest of 
these stars, or suns, is not less, as has been ascertained, than 
twenty billions of miles ; a distance greater than we can con- 



DOUBLE STAES AND DOUBLE SYSTEMS. 227 

ceive. If such be the distance which divides the different solar 
systems which make up the universe, we here gain some idea, 
though it is bewildering, of the amplitude of the field on which 
God has chosen to display his wisdom and the riches of his 
" manifold works." 

An extraordinary development of modern astronomy (and 
one much to our present purpose), is the resolving of a great 
number of stars (supposed for centuries to be single) into two^ 
three, four, or many. So immensely remote are these stars 
that when viewed by the naked eye, or through an ordinary 
instrument, their light appears blended, yet when plied by 
some modern telescopes are found to be separated by a space 
by no means small. But why I direct attention to these stars 
is to point out a singular phenomenon — another grand and in- 
teresting variety in the sidereal heavens. The characteristic of 
the solar system we found to be that of one magnificent body 
in the centre^ dispensing light and heat to a great number of 
other immense bodies over which it has a supreme control to 
sustain them in their respective orbits. But as we pass on to 
other suns and systems of worlds, we are agreeably surprised to 
meet with a difi*erent order of arrangement and government. 
Instead of one sun in the centre, about which all are borne in 
solitary grandeur, we here meet with a double system, having 
two suns, each revolving about the other, and bearing with 
them their respective systems of planets and satellites. Again, 
three suns, with a triple system, are seen wending their way 
around each other, and about a common centre : — or four^ or 
more, interweaving their respective orbits, speeding their courses 
about one another, with motions the most complicated and 



228 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

novel, and conducting in their several trains hundreds of 
worlds. 

This transcends our utmost surmisings on the subject of 
motion. All we have seen in the solar system is but the sim- 
plicity of a right line compared with the complexity of motion 
in these triple^ quadruple and multiple systems. A new ma- 
thematical problem^ transcending the vastest powers of human 
intellect — perhaps of angelic — must be solved before we may 
do more than wonder, praise and adore Him who "in the 
heights of heaven doeth great things past finding out, yea, and 
wonders without number." How these several systems, com- 
posed of so many diiSerent bodies, can be so nicely poised in 
mid space in relation to another and to the common centre — 
how their antagonist forces can be so nicely adjusted as to curb 
every ball in its destined path, and to preserve the safety and 
harmony of the whole, beggars all human sapience to divine. 

Nor is this all : astronomical observations have developed 
facts in reference to the velocities of these suns and systems 
so surpassing any thing of the kind in the solar system as to 
make it a sublime and terrific peculiarity of these stars. The 
60,000 miles an hour by which the earth moves in his orbit, 
or the 100,000 of Mercury is but an item in the incredible, in- 
conceivable velocity with which these double and triple stars 
are found to move about one another. 

They have, too, another peculiarity : in almost every in- 
stance they vary in color. One is zi^ A ?7^', its companion r^'c/. 
One orange or green, its fellow yellow, or blue, ruddy, greenish 
or bluish. What an endless, what a beautiful variety of 
scenery must this produce on the surfaces of the different 
planets which are enlightened by these suns ! One hemisphere 



LUMINOUS SPECKS, OR STAR DUST. 229 

of a globe illuminated by a red star, the other by a green one ! 
A sun of a brilliant white rising in the east, while another of a 
ruby hue is sinking below the horizon in the west, each send- 
ing up rays of his peculiar color, and blending hues in the 
most agreeable and tasteful manner ! What beautiful changes, 
contrasts and varieties must be produced by the various revo- 
lutions, at their different distances and various angles of in- 
clination, of two, three or four suns of so many different 
colors. 

I name one other variety under this head : As you looked 
through the telescope, you saw certain objects, more or less 
distinct, which appeared like small luminous clouds. But on 
increasing the power of the instrument you found this cloud 
to be resolvable into stars — and beyond this, other similar 
clouds, which, with a larger telescope would, no doubt, be 
resolvable in the same manner. Such observations have con- 
vinced astronomers that the millions of millions of stars which 
fill immensity are not scattered at random, or diffused in 
space, but collected into clusters. How numerous ttese 
clusters are, is beyond the ken of human wisdom to tell. 
Space seems to be full of them. Or how many myriads 
on myriads of stars are contained in a single cluster is as yet 
beyond human calculation. Every new magnifying power in- 
troduces us to new clusters — and beyond these there still remain 
luminous specks, or star dust, which, no doubt, a larger instru- 
ment would equally resolve. 

Her^ we gain an idea of the amplitude and magnificence 
— to us, ilm infinitude — of the works of the Almighty hand, 
whieh baffles :the powers of the most vivid imagination. 
We think jxow )X0 more to count the suns or systems — we 



230 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

take no further note of planets like Saturn or Jupiter, but 
launch our adventurous bark into the interminable ocean of 
space, and survey and attempt to number only clusters of sys- 
tems, some of which are known to contain many millions of 
stars. 

The first of these magnificent groups, demanding atten- 
tion, is the one to which our solar system belongs, called the 
Galaxy or Milky- Way. It is a broad irregular belt or zone 
stretching across the heavens from one end of the firmament to 
the other — 

*' A broad and ample road whose dust is gold, 
And pavement stars, as stars to us appear. ; 
Seen in the Galaxy, that Milky-Way, 
Like to a circling zone powdered with stars." 

To the naked eye it presents little more than a confused 
light, yet when plied by a large telescope, the confusion van- 
ishes, and its place is filled by thousands of glittering suns. 
In a field of view, not above the fourth part of the apparent 
size of the moon, Herschel distinguished more than 500 stars, 
and during 15 minutes of time, there passed the vision of his 
telescope no less than 116,000. He estimates the probable 
number of stars in this cluster to be 20,000,000. Yet does not 
suppose this to be so large as some others. 

The whole field of space which has been traversed by the 
best telescopes is 500 times further than the distance to the 
nearest fixed star, or 10,000 billions miles ; a distance which, 
if passed over by a cannon ball at the rate of 500 miles 
an hour, would occupy 2,200 millions years. Within this 
vast area, which may be but the vestibule of the Universe, 
there have been discovered no less than 3,000 of these 



VARIETIES OF CLUSTEES OF SUNS. 231 

nebula or clusters of suns, some apparently more, some less 
magnificent and extensive than the Milky-Way. Suppose 
them on an average to be equal and each to be accompanied by 
50 planets, we have enclosed within telescopic vision 3 billions 
of worlds, a number of which we can form no adequate con- 
ception. But it is not so much the surpassing grandeur of 
thie scene as the variety to which I would guide your attention. 

In form, dimensions, motions, and general appearance, no 
two of these clusters are alike. Many are globular with a 
concentration of light near the centre. Some are conical, or 
triangular, or oval ; round, elliptical, annular or shaped like 
luminous rings ; and others like an ellipsis with a dark spot 
in the centre. " Their situation and shape," says Herschel, 
'' as well as their condition, seem to denote the greatest va- 
riety imaginable. In another stratum, or perhaps in a dif- 
ferent branch of the same, I have seen double and treble ne- 
bula, variously arranged ; large ones with small, seemingly 
attendants ; narrow but much extended lucid nebula, or 
brighter dashes; some of the shape of a fan, resembling an 
electric brush, issuing from a lucid point ; others in the shape 
of a comet, with a seeming nucleus in the centre, or like cloudy 
stars surrounded with a nebulous atmosphere." 

Some appear in strata of great length and breadth, but of 
little thickness ; others present every irregularity of form that 
can be imagined. Some have a bright star near their centre ; 
others have bright stars in other portions of them — and a few 
appear as a stream of luminous matter, with a brilliant star at 
each extremity. Indeed there is scarcely an imaginable shape 
in which you do not find some of these clusters. 

What, then, is the conclusion % Surely that variety is a 



232 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

universal characteristic throughout the vast domains of the 
Eternal King. Take a cursory retrospect of the whole, and 
you see that the very structure and operation of the vast and 
complicated machine involve a perpetual variety ; moons re- 
volve about planets ; planets about suns ; suns and systems 
about suns and systems ; clusters of systems about their com- 
mon centres ; and then (grand beyond all human conception) 
these mighty clusters, rolling on, as one system, with incon- 
ceivable grandeur, and in an orbit that beggars all arithmetic 
to calculate or the loftiest imagination to compass, rolling on, 
about the great centre of ten thousand centres — about the cap- 
ital of Jehovah's boundless domains — about the throne of the 
Eternal Mind. What variety of motions, distances, velocities 
— what variegated scenery — what diversified results must such 
stupendous and varied operations produce ! 

But we must no longer linger amidst the principalities and 
powers, the kingdoms and dominions of the only Potentate. 
The rich garniture of the heavens affords other illustrations of 
variety no less interesting than those already given, as comets, 
meteors, planetary nebula, variable stars ; but time fails. 

Again, the countless myriads of intelligent beings, who, 
doubtless, inhabit the unnumbered worlds of Jehovah's empire, 
afford another series of varieties most extensive and interesting. 
No two worlds, we have seen, are fitted to be the abode of the 
same species of beings, Neither their physical conformation, 
nor their mental constitution can be the same. But this must 



Yet I apprehend we differ from the tenants of other worlds 
in nothing so con^ncuously as in our moral condition. This 
is our inglorious distinction. Here is the mark which makes 



THE MOKAL APOSTASY OF OUR VARIETY. 233 

US the wonder of angels, and the scorn of devils. The moral 
apostasy^ together with the mysterious plan of recovery^ may 
be the humiliating — the glorious distinction of our world. It 
may be peculiar to our planet that here alone the subjects of 
God have rebelled — and here alone is shown the possibility, and 
the practicability of restoring them to the favor of the abused 
Sovereign. All eyes are turned on us ; now in deep and 
solemn commiseration over man's ruin; now in admiration of 
the scheme of restoration ; and now in praise and adoration at 
the final consummation of man's redemption. The whole is to 
be regarded as a signal display of the Divine perfections. 
The scheme here filling up for restoring rebels is one way, 
which God has selected by which to develop his eternal power 
and Godhead. In other worlds, moral transactions, of a char- 
acter of which we can form no just conception, may be trans- 
piring, as sublime, as characteristic of the sleepless energies 
of Omnipotence, ^s honorable to his moral perfections, and as 
beneficial to the vast assemblage of his creatures, as the plan 
adopted here for the emancipation of man. 

I knov/ not that we have any just ground for the self-gratu- 
lating surmise, that the Universal Sovereign has made our in- 
significant ball, peculiarly, a theatre of his marvellous works. 
That He has, in the scheme of redemption, wrought marvels 
here, inscrutable by human ken, is past all controversy. Yet 
th^ he is not the Author of wonders as profound and magnifi- 
cent, as unsearchable and glorious, in other worlds, I know not 
that we may question. Nay, more : the fact that he is the 
Author of such a stupendous transaction in this comparatively 
insignificant speck of creation, is rather a presumption that he 
may be the Author of as grand (if possible) and sublime trans- 



234 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

actions in tlie mightier, nobler, more majestic worlds and sys- 
tems, wMch compose the numberless provinces of his empire. 
But for our moral degradation — our loss of the capabilities 
and susceptibilities of our state of primeval innocence, we 
might perhaps be favored by an acquaintance with the dis- 
tinguishing moral achievements which characterize the history 
of other worlds. Other worlds, we know, are acquainted with our 
moral disasters, and with the interposing hand of compassion 
for our restoration. " Into these things angels desire to look." 
Beings of other worlds are intently eager to survey and scruti- 
nize this extraordinary transaction. So well do they know the 
ruin of man's present moral condition, and so well appreciate 
the blessedness of reconciliation with God that an acclamation 
of joy is heard among them, when but "one sinner repents." 
The Apostle Paul, too, represents the mystery of redemption as 
revealed to the intent that unto principalities and powers in 
heavenly places^ onight he made known, by the Church, the mani- 
fold wisdom of Godr Our planet was selected as a theatre on 
which to exhibit to all worlds the evil of sin — its origin, its 
growth and full development — that the "man of sin be re- 
vealed '' — be manifested and shown out in all the strength and 
luxuriance of its native vileness : and, on the other hand, to 
afford a signal illustration of the perfections of the Divine 
character, in the atonement made and applied to save man. 
Redemption is, therefore, the grand moral variety which distin- 
guishes our world from all others. Hence, it is an object of 
absorbing interest to the tenants of all other worlds. Yet the 
annals of other worlds may unfold to our astonished vision 
transactions as peculiar and grand, and as beautifully and aw- 
fully illustrative of the Divine perfections in some other inter- 



THE GRANDEUR OF THE ETERNAL THRONE. 235 

esting point of view. And, were we possessed of the data 
wliich Gabriel may have, we might go on from world to world, 
and from system to system as we have already done, pointing 
out as many moral varieties in the Divine dispensation as we 
have seen physical diversities in the manifold works of Na- 
ture. 

Enough has been adduced in illustration of my principle. 
Variety is the characteristic of Divine workmanship. Whether 
you look into the vast and mighty fabrics which roll in clus- 
tered grandeur around the Eternal Throne, or to the myriads 
of animalcula, which revel in all the luxury of life in a single 
drop of water, or on a single leaf, you meet a never-ending 
variety. 

But it is time that, I close. Yet a few reflections rush un- 
bidden upon us. 

1. What an' idea does this give us of God? With but a 
partial view of the multiplicity, the grandeur and variety of 
his works, we can but stand afar off, and in awful astonish- 
ment and in overwhelming majesty, cover our face, and with 
the s^eet singer of Israel exclaim, Lord my God, thou art 
very great I What view so displays the magnificence of the 
Divine Being ? We can scarcely comprehend that even Om- 
nipotence could construct so many and such enormous masses of 
matter — reduce them to order and govern them. But when we 
see in what an endless variety he has made all things, our ad- 
miration of his greatness is raised still higher. It were much 
that he should clothe the meadow with a carpet of green, and 
adorn the trees with a verdant foliage : but much more that 
he should variegate this covering in ten thousand different 
shapes and colors and patterns. 



236 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

Again, what an idea does our subject give us of the riches 
of God ? You call that man rich^ who has many and large 
storehouses, filled with every thing which can administer to 
his necessities or his pleasures. But God's storehouses are as 
many as there are worlds in the universe — all filled with arti- 
cles of the most exquisite workmanship, and in such infinite 
variety that you cannot find two insects, or sands, or leaves, or 
flowers, or worlds alike. 

What an idea does it give us of his goodness ! Why has he 
filled the universe with his riches — why so garnished the heav- 
ens — variegated all nature and clothed all things in beauty 
and sweetness ? if it be not to display the plenitude of his be- 
nevolence and to contribute to the well-being of his creatures. 
Not only does he open to them inexhaustible fountains of 

pleasure, but he so diversifies their pleasures that they never 

ft 
tire. 

And what an idea, too, here, of the Divine wisdom ! Sur- 
veying the manifold works of God, who would not exclaim, 
" in wisdom hast thou made them alV But numerous and 
variegated as they are, nothing is useless. All is beautifully 
adapted to its purpose. 

What shill in producing and conducting all the operations 
needful to eff"ect such endless variety ! — what inscrutable wisdom 
and knowledge in so accurately calculating distances, motions, 
inclinations, positions, weights and bulk, — so nicely to adjust 
globes of such various dimensions, (some inconceivably large 
and at immense distances, some with strange ajipendages of 
moons, belts or rings,) and so accurately to poise them as to 
secure their stability and permanence, and to make them fit 
habitations for intelligent beings ! Were we to contemplate 



THE MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS. 237 

no more than the mathematical calculations which must enter 
into the account, there is indicated a depth and dimensions of 
intellect of which we can form no conception. Suppose the in- 
tellect of some created being to be vast enough accurately to 
calculate the attracting force of the sun, and the mutual at- 
traction of the planets — also to suspend every ball in its proper 
position, and to adjust all in reference to their compound forces ; 
yet he might find that not a wheel in the great machine would 
go — every ball drop from its place — worlds dash on worlds, be- 
cause he had overlooked or found himself wholly unable to 
calculate the influence which other solar systems may have on 
ours, or other clusters of systems on the one to which ours be- 
longs. For we have no reason to suppose ours an isolated sys- 
tem, independent of all others, but rather one of an indefinite 
number ; and that every distance is fixed, every motion of every 
planet, satellite, belt or ring, is determined in special reference 
to the connection of our system to the great Whole. That 
God should be able to calculate all these nice particulars in re- 
lation to an infinite number and infinite variety of systems, 
gives us an idea of his greatness, his wisdom and power, more 
exalted than we may, perhaps, gain in any other way. What 
must that God be, who, on the- one hand, could contrive, form 
and adjust its endless variety of parts so as to produce perfect 
harmony ; set in motion, and uphold, in spite of all conflicting 
powers, such a vast machine as the universe ; and, on the other 
hand, so nicely superintend the minutest objects in nature, as 
the diversifying a landscape, the variegating of flowers, or the 
gilding the wings of an insect. What must that God be, who 
is so high, so low, so rich, so poor, that he can stand at the 



238 THE PAI.ACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

helm and guide millions of millions of worlds, and yet take 
note of the falling sparrow and watch the lily of the field. 

2. We can no longer marvel at God's tender and unremit- 
ting care of our world. The Infidel looks abroad upon the 
vastness of the material universe and says it is absurd that the 
Author of so many worlds, most of them far surpassing ours in 
magnitude, grandeur and beauty, should make this earth, this 
insignificant province of his boundless domains — this speck of 
creation, an object of his peculiar care. Would he be at so 
much pains — would he send his only beloved Son to die, to 
bring succor to man ? Would he pour out the bowels of his 
love, and exhaust his tender mercies on a speck, which bears 
no more comparison to the entire empire of God, than a grain 
of sand to the sea-shore, or a single leaf to the forest ? 

We admit the comparative insignificance of our planet, yet 
we yield not the point. Insignificant as our earth is, it is one 
of God's varieties. Among the exhaustless riches of the Eternal 
King there is nothing like it. As a specimen of his skill, then, 
and of workmanship, it is precious as the apple of his eye. 
The moment it became marred and mutilated by sin — the mo- 
ment rebellion broke out in this province of his empire, it was 
befitting that God should put forth a special effort for its re- 
covery. For the effects of this insurrection could not stop 
here. The warfare entered upon was a war of principle. The 
law violated was the law of the universal empire. The insult 
offered, an insult to the Majesty of the Universe. It mattered 
not, then, whether the battle-field were great or small — whether 
it were earth or Jupiter or a planetary nebula, millions of times 
larger than our sun. A 2^rinciple was to be settled. It Avas to 
be determined whether sin or holiness should reign — whether 



OIJR WOELD A GEE AT BATTLE FIELD. 239 

Satan or God should sit on the throne of universal empire. 
Our earth was selected as the scene of conflict. Here sin 
should take the field, arrayed against holiness. Here the Cap- 
tain of our salvation should vanquish him who had the power 
of death. 

But while our world has been made the theatre for the ad- 
justment of a question so vital to the interests and happiness 
of every province in God's kingdom, other worlds may be the 
appointed arena on which to settle other questions of essential 
moment to the welfare of the great whole. While it may very 
justly excite our profoundest wonder that the sleepless eye of 
God should seem in a special manner to be directed towards our 
world, and his bountiful hand to be scattering blessings most 
profusely on his creature man, yet could we get a glance at the 
Divine economy of other worlds, I doabt not we should meet 
dispensations which would appear to us quite as special and 
extraordinary. It only comports with what we know of the 
infinitely varied character of God's works, to believe that every 
separate world in the universe has a history, people, climate and 
productions peculiar to itself; and its own peculiar manifesta- 
tions of the Deity, His works and ways there — the moral 
condition of the people — their manners, customs, modes of ex- 
istence, are all peculiar to themselves. And every separate 
world will form a distinct and interesting study for God's holy 
creatures to all eternity. 

What we know is, that the Second Person of the Trinity 
has made a glorious advent to this our planet ; that he begun, 
and is still carrying forward, a work of ineffable magnitude 
and immeasurable interest to us ; that having fulfilled his be- 
nevolent errand here, '' He that maketh the clouds his chariot" 



240 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

bade adieu to this globe, and rode in triumph to some other 
world, to some mMerial world — for he departed with a material 
body — where he may achieve marvels as wonderful, and per- 
form works as stupendous, and as honorable to God ; where he 
may be carrying forward other schemes for the final aggrandize- 
ment of the Imperial Throne, quite as magnificent as he had 
accomplished on our earth. 

There is in the idea that God created and upholds all this 
vast universe, a sublimity which beggars all conception. By 
the word of his power, by his almighty fiat, all worlds, sys- 
tems, clusters of systems and boundless universe, with all its 
complicated structures, adaptations, motions and uses, emerged 
from nothing ! that nothing is so minute, nothing so mighty, 
no intelligence so high, none so low, which he does not direct. 
The surmise of the Christian philosopher here is certainly a 
very natural one : '' The infinite ease," says he, " with which 
this vast fabric was reared, leads us irresistibly to conclude, 
that there are powers and energies in the Divine Mind which 
have never yet been exerted, and which may unfold themselves 
to intelligent beings in the production of still more astonishing 
and magnificent effects, during an endless succession of ex- 
istence." 



CHAPTER XV. 

How it takes all sorts of Saints to make a Heaven. 
'"^Having gifts differing according to the grace that is given us.^' — Rom. xii. 6. 

Heaven is a paradise, a garden of flowers, into which the great 
Proprietor has gathered (and where bloom in eternal beauty) 
flowers of every imaginable hue, fragrance and variety. Or 
heaven is a vast repository of jewels, which the great Media- 
torial King has gathered, and is still gathering, from amidst 
the beggarly elements of the apostasy, and fitting and burnish- 
ing in every possible variety. While in essential characteris- 
tics and intrinsic value all are alike, yet Gabriel in vain would 
traverse the boundless fields of Paradise to find two of these 
plants of renown, these trees of righteousness, which do not 
present some features of interest peculiar to itself. Or, if 
heaven be a repository of the jewels of the Great King, then 
each of the great multitude, which no man can number, pre- 
sents some peculiar beauty and excellence of its own. 

Heaven is the assemblage and the full consummation of all 
the varied graces which ever flourished on the earth, or among 
the principalities and powers in heavenly places. 

It is in the garden below that all these plants of righteous- 
ness are reared and fitted for transplantation to the garden 
above. And if, as has been intimated, the same universal law 
11 



242 THE PALACE OP THE GREAT KING. 

of variety pervade the boundless domains of heaven, as we 
have seen characterize all things on earth, not except man 
in all his social, intellectual and physical relations and develop- 
ments, we must expect to find man in all his moral relations, 
endowments and trainings, subject to the same law. Not only 
does it take " all sorts of men to make a world," but it requires 
" all sorts of saints to make a heaven." 

Hence all those '' diversities of gifts" and spiritual endow- 
ments, all those " diversities of operations " and " ministra- 
tions " of which the apostle speaks. By his manifold wisdom 
and grace, God is thus preparing men for heaven, who shall 
exhibit and illustrate in their characters, virtues and graces of 
of every possible variety. 

A late writer, in illustration of this thought, has well said : 
" A truly righteous act is a good in a double sense. It not 
only does good but itself is a good. It adds to the sum total 
of good in existence. The whole realm of God is the wealthier 
for it, and the glory of God's administration is so much in- 
creased. He, then, who works out one great act of fidelity, 
showing to the world the beauty and preciousness of that 
cardinal virtue ; or holds forth one great example of truth ; or 
one great exhibition of disinterested love ; or one great lesson 
of Christian patience and constancy, will find these, at its 
close, substantial products of life, which will bless it as they 
will enrich the universe forever. Let it not be supposed that 
in judging and rewarding the actions of probation, God will 
have respect only to what was simply useful, or the opposite. 
He will regard also what was beautiful and only in itself good. 
As an earthly monarch collects in the galleries of his palace 
the achievements of art, rare works of painting and stat'iary, 



VARIETY IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 243 

and of exquisite mechanical skill, which henceforth remain 
illustrative of his taste and wealth and magnificence, and 
descend from generation to generation as among the most 
sacred treasures and ornaments of the nation ; so God, out of 
all the noble, and beautiful, and pure things which the history 
of redemption will have furnished, the virtues, the charities, 
the high achievements of Christian faith and hope, will, in the 
day when he 'maketh up his jewels,' fill and embellish the 
courts of Heaven, and cause them to stand forever as illustra- 
tions to the universe of the highest beauty and worth, and 
monuments of that wondrous grace which had power to elabo- 
rate them from materials once so ruined and lost." 

Our subject is variety in Christian character and experience. 
As in the natural world variety is everywhere the controlling 
order of workmanship, so in the spiritual, all God's spiritual 
creations bear stamped upon their face the most evident marks 
of his "manifold wdsdom" and his "manifold grace." The 
fact that the Church is made up of all sorts of men ; of persons 
of all sorts of temperaments, habits, positions in life, degrees 
of mental culture and habits of thought, would seem to furnish 
a general basis for a corresponding variety in the moral char- 
acter and religious temperament and experience of its mem- 
bers ; and as the church below is the nursery of the church in- 
visible above, we may assume that the perfect state of the 
blessed in heaven shall not be less richly developed and pro- 
fusely variegated than in this imperfect state below. 

The reflecting mind will not fail to magnify the wisdom 
and grace of God in the singularly rich displays of this wisdom 
and grace as seen in the varieties of his spiritual workmanship. 
While it is the same Spirit, the same Sovereign Agent, that 



244 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

works " all in all " — works all these different graces and vir- 
tues in all the different myriads and millions of persons who 
are the subjects of them. Yet every individual case is an in- 
dividual variety. 

Divine grace operates on the human mind as it finds it ; 
and operating, as it does, on all possible varieties of mind 
and personal peculiarities, without pretending to eradicate or 
change them, it, of consequence, produces as great a variety 
of Christian character. The design is to engender and cher- 
ish in the body of Christ, which is the church, every possible 
Christian grace. The presentation of the same motives, the 
same truths, and the same providential dealings, would, on 
this principle, secure a singular variety in the restilts ; and it 
would seem, as we shall see by and by, as if the Divine Mind 
were exhausted in so multiplying and variegating motives, 
truths, providential dealings, and all the means of grace, as to 
secure every conceivable variety in Christian character and 
experience. 

But we are concerned at present rather with the facts ; of 
the uses and reasons of all these diversities of gifts and graces, 
and the diversified means and agencies by which they are "pro- 
duced, we will speak hereafter. The great fact in the case is, 
that, as in nature so in grace, the Divine wisdom and good- 
ness seem exhausted in an endless variety of workmanship. 
As we cast the eye over the broad field of Christian experi- 
ence, could we thoroughly analyze the piety of any given 
number of Christians, we should undoubtedly find each indi- 
vidual a distinct variety of himself All true disciples of our 
one Lord and one Spirit are essentially one. They harmonize 
in all the great features of Christian character and temper. 



J 



PECULIARITIES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 245 

They are one in Christ. They all bear the same badge of dis- 
cipleship — all love and serve the same Lord — are baptized into 
the same Spirit — feed on the same heavenly bread, and drink 
at the same wells of salvation. Their work, their aim, their 
hopes are one — their home, their eternal rest, is one. Yet 
every Christian exhibits peculiarities of Christian character 
differing from every other Christian. 

Our thought is amply illustrated in sacred history. Patri- 
archs, prophets, apostles, all the saints whose biography we 
have in the Bible, are beautiful illustrations of it. In one, 
reverence predominated ; in another, hope, or faith, or love, 
or joy. The religion of one was retiring, self- distrusting, sub- 
jective ; that of another, was bold and aggressive. One exults 
on the Pisgah of hope, another feels his way through the val- 
ley of humiliation. The prophets were all holy men, yet no 
two of them presented the same phase of piety. Each one 
illustrated his own peculiar virtues and graces. The apostles 
were all (Judas excepted, and Paul in his stead,) good men, 
yet how different the features of their piety. What can be 
more unlike than Peter and John, or Paul and Barnabas'? 
Nor was the type of piety which characterized the other nine 
scarcely less varied. 

The three apostles with whom we are best acquainted, 
and about whose religious character we know the most, are 
Paul, Peter and John. They were all very holy and devoted 
men — ^baptized into the same Spirit, and of one faith, one 
Lord and one baptism. Yet how different a type of piety did 
each manifest. The Sun of righteousness had shone in upon 
their native darkness from different directions and through dif- 
ferent agencies, and more especially had cast his light on certain 



246 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

provinces of that dark empire of sin, the human heart ; and con- 
sequently as the mind was roused and a conviction produced^, in 
respect to a certain sin or a particular class of sins, pardoning 
grace, adapted itself to the conviction of sin, or of duty, and 
the virtues and graces implanted thereby, would be found to 
correspond. 

The apostles named are examples. They all, though not 
in the same degree, exhibited faith, zeal and love. Yet each 
was remarkable for a particular grace or graces, which strik- 
ingly distinguished his piety from that of either of the others. 
" Paul chiefly exhibited the strength of faith ; Peter, the power 
of zeal ; and John, the force of love. Paul is most distinguished 
for that courage and fortitude which faith inspires ; Peter, for 
the ardor and activity which are stimulated by zeal ; John, 
for that melting tenderness and fervent charity which he 
caught by leaning on the bosom of incarnate Love. 

" Tet Paul had zeal as well as Peter, and love as well as 
John ; though in these qualities they respectively excelled him. 
Peter,* too, was strong in faith, as well as Paul, and lovingly 
and devotedly attached to his Lord as well as John, though 
excelled by them severally in these particulars. So John was 
firm in faith as well as Paul, and fervent in action as well as 
Peter, though they outshone him in these bright graces. Each 
had what the others had, but each blended these virtues in dif- 
ferent proportions. Each, forming a distinct compound of 
them according to his own natural temperament and his pe- 
culiar experience of the grace of God, attained to a historic in- 
dividuality of his own, which has been recognized in all ages. 

^^ There can hardly be a happier illustration of that diversity 
in unity, which, in religion as in all the other works of Grod, pre- 



iPAUL, PETER AND JOHN UNLIKE. 247 

sent the charm of consistent variety. Such variety is like the 
parts of a skilful harmony, dissimilar, and yet made for each 
other, and blending in sweet accord. ' Now there are diversi- 
ties of gifts, but the same Spirit ; and there are differences of 
administrations, but the same Lord ; and there are diversities 
of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 
But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, divid- 
ing to every man severally as he wilL' 

"By the varied confounding of the same simple elements, a 
creation is produced where each part relieves, heightens and 
sets off the rest. Thus the pleasure of constant novelty, fresh 
and interesting combinations, and of well-adjusted contrasts, 
is kept up. It is this which feeds all pleasurable excitement. 
It is more than ' the spice of life.' It is the food of lasting 
admiration and enjoyment. Melody is sweet, but it is spiritless 
and monotonous, and soon surfeits the palled ear. But the 
harmonious ^concourse of sweet sounds' melting into each 
other, and blending into the rolling tide of music, is the tri- 
umph of that delightful art, whose magical effects are the re- 
sult of variety in unison. 

' Assembled men to the deep organ join 
The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear, 
At solemn pauses, through the swelling base ; 
And, as each mingling flame increases each, 
In one united ardor rise to heaven,' 

" The affections of holy souls^ are like the ten accordant 
strings of the golden harps on high. They are attuned by the 
Spirit of God, who breathes upon them all, and mingles their 
dulcet notes with divinest skill in the full chorus of celestial 
song." 



248 THE PALACE OF THE GKEAT KING. 

I. make no apology for so long an extract. It so beauti- 
fully delineates our idea that it would be but affectation to 
attempt to clothe it in another dress. 

But prophets and apostles afford but limited illustrations. 
The principle holds with respect to the whole body of believers. 
'' The manifold grace of God" has, perhaps, wrought in no two 
persons alike. The illustration taken from the apostles will 
serve as a general one. 

You may examine the religious exercises and the peculiar 
features of the religious character of each member of any indi- 
vidual church, or of every individual of the church universal, 
and you will find that the great Architect has as carefully and 
universally variegated his moral creations as he has his ma- 
terial works. You will discover that, in all the different sub- 
jects of Divine grace, the same spirit has wrought '' diversities 
of gifts," and "diversities" of manifestations — "diversities of 
operations" and of "administrations." Different gifts are en- 
gendered^ and different graces implanted and nourished in dif- 
ferent hearts. One is distinguished by a peculiarly strong, 
simple and childlike faith. Simple trust and filial acquiescence 
characterizes such a one. Another class unfold the beauties 
of hope. However clouds and darkness may surround them at 
present, they always see light and joy before them. In one, 
meekness, humility and gentleness abound ; while the religion 
of another is characterized by boldness, courage and enterprise. 
The religious affections of another are seen to centre very much 
about holy joy. He is wont so much to contemplate the good- 
ness of God, and more especially his abounding mercy through 
Jesus Christ as the only ground of human salvation, that he 
rejoices always with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; while 



DIYEESITIES OF OPEEATIOKS. 249 

the religion of another is scarcely known outside of the vale of 
tears. So intently does he dwell on his fallen and his corrupt 
nature and his hopeless condition by sin, that he does little but 
mourn his lost estate. 

As one has his thoughts directed more especially towards 
God- — as he gets clearer and more comprehensive views of the 
greatness, and goodness, and holiness of the Divine character, 
reverence and awe become the more prominent manifestations 
of his religion ; while another, by the more frequent contem- 
plations of his own unworthiness and guilt as a sinner, finds 
his religious exercises cast in a more sombre mould — clouded by 
the shadows of humiliation, doubt and fear. The heart of one 
seems almost constantly to glow with gratitude and expand in 
love, and is the more easily engaged in labors of beneficence, 
or drawn out in kindly sympathies for the woes of the desti- 
tute and suff"ering. The heart of another recoils back on itself, 
and expends the feelings of a broken and a contrite spirit in 
self-upbraidings and repentant sighs. 

The formation of this singular variety in Christian char- 
acter is very much laid in the early convictions of the sin- 
ner as produced by the different aspects and phases in which 
Divine truth is apprehended, and in those different mental 
yearnings and anxious heart-struggles which usually precede 
conversion. Every truly converted soul is brought to one and 
the same point before the sovereign act of pardoning grace 
reaches it. All must feel their dependence, their moral cor- 
ruption and guilt, their absolute need of an infinite Saviour, 
and must yield themselves up with implicit submission, un- 
feigned repentance and childlike faith ; though there be a 
vast variety in the manner in which each individual is brought 
11* 



250 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

to such a conviction and surrender ; and as great a variety in 
the character of the convictions themselves. " Some are 
brought," says a great master in Israel (President Edwards, 
than whom few men ever searched deeper into the secret re- 
cesses of the heart, or was more highly endowed with the gift 
of " discerning spirits ;" he was one of the Great Master's 
choice and interesting varieties) — " some are brought to this 
conviction by a great sense of their sinfulness in general, that 
they are such vile and wicked creatures in heart and life ; 
others have the sins of their lives in an extraordinary manner 
set before them, multitudes of them coming just then fresh 
to their memory, and being set before them with their aggra- 
vations ; some have their minds especially fixed on some par- 
ticular wicked practice they have indulged ; some are especially 
convinced by a sight of the corruption and wickedness of their 
hearts ; some from a view they have of the horridness of some 
particular exercise of corruption, which they have had in the 
time of their awakening, whereby the enmity of the heart 
against God had been manifested." 

Correspondingly varied too are the sources of religious com- 
forts which different Christians experience. These vary accord- 
ing to the peculiar direction given to the mind in its awakened 
state. " More frequently, Christ is distinctly made the object 
of the mind, in his all-sufficiency and willingness to save sin- 
ners ; but some have their thoughts more especially fixed on 
God, in some of his sweet and glorious attributes manifested 
in the gospel and shining forth in the face of Jesus Christ." 
Others are moved by the all-sufficiency of the mercy and grace 
of God, chiefly by his infinite power and ability to save. The 
truth and faithfulness of God, or the peculiar adaptedness to 



VARIOUS METHODS OF GRACE. 251 

their wants of tlie Gospel, engrosses the mind and moves the 
hearts of some ; while others dwell on the promises, and invi- 
tations, and the peculiar grace of the Gospel, and they become 
the moving themes. In one instance, " the glory and wonder- 
fulness of the dying love of Christ ; the sufficiency and precious- 
ness of his blood as offered to make an atonement for sin, or 
the value and glory of his obedience and righteousness, fill the 
mind and sway the heart. Or the excellences and loveliness 
of Christ chiefly engage the thoughts ; and the type of religion, 
which is the result, varies according to the views taken of God 
and truth. 

" In some, converting light is like a glorious brightness 
suddenly shining in upon a person and all around him ; they 
are in a remarkable manner brought out of darkness into 
marvellous light. In many others it has been like the dawn- 
ing of the day when but first a light appears, and it may be, 
is presently hid with a cloud." There is, indeed, an endless 
variety in the particular manner and circumstances in which 
persons are wrought on, both at and after conversion, as well 
as in the degree of hope and satisfaction which they have in 
their own estate. God confines himself to no particular 
methods, and therefore no one can make his own experience a 
rule for others. The work is "glorious in its variety," beauti- 
fully displaying the " manifoldness and unsearchableness of 
the wisdom of God." 

But why does the " self-same Spirit " work in the children 
of the Highest such diversities of Christian experience, charac- 
ter and practice "? The apostle answers : " The manifestation 
of the Spirit is given to every man, to profit withal." Christ's 
mediatorial work among men is a great work, and very various 



252 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

in its character ; and he provides instruments to meet the ex- 
pansive and varying character of the work. He diversifies 
gifts and graces as he sees is best suited to profit all ranks and 
conditions of men, and fit them to perform every possible ser- 
vice in the church, and as is best suited to profit each indi- 
vidual Christian. 

Paul speaks (1 Cor. xii. 8-10) of the differences of "ad- 
ministrations " and " operations ;" the various ministries or 
services, and the different labors to be performed as the circum- 
stances and exigencies of the church and the world had need 
of in his day ; and how the mental and spiritual resources of 
the then ^present generation of Christians were adapted to 
meet all these singularly varied wants. " To one is given by 
the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another, the word of knowl- 
edge ; to another, faith ; to another, the gift of healing ; to 
another, the working of miracles ;" and to others severally the 
gifts of prophecy ; of the discerning of spirits ; of speaking 
divers kinds of tongues, or of interpreting of tongues. 

Hence, too, the various grades of teachers in the Christian 
church, and their singularly varied endowments and aptitudes 
as teachers. To meet the wants of the church at that period, 
there were appointed, or "set" in the church, "apostles, 
prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, govern- 
ments, diversities of tongues." If all had been apostles, or all 
prophets or teachers, or workers of miracles ; if all had the 
gifts of healing, or of speaking with tongues, or all interpreted, 
how extremely limited would have been the range of duties 
and services which the Christian church would have performed. 
And if there were not the same wise and benevolent distribu- 
tion of religious endowments and capabilities in the chui'ch of 



EVERT MAN GREAT IN HIS OWN SPHERE. 253 

tlie present time, the broad field of Christian duty could never 
be occupied. 

Contented, then, should every man be in the work and 
station assigned him by the great controlling mind. If he be 
doing the work for which he is fitted and called, he is doing a 
good and acceptable work ; and it matters not in point of 
honor in the eyes of the Master, whether the department of 
service which he fills be, in man's estimation, high or low. He 
alone is high in Heaven's estimate who well does his own 
appropriate work. 

What envyings, jealousies, and unhallowed rivalries ; what 
heartburnings and strifes, would be spared a sufiering church, 
if every individual member would quietly do his own duties, 
illustrate the graces which the Master has vouchsafed to him, 
and contentedly occupy the station which God has assigned 
him. Every grace would then be cultivated, every duty done, 
every post well filled, and soon " great would be the company 
of them who publish" the glad tidings of the kingdom. 

The thought illustrated in this chapter quite rebukes the 
pride of those who seem to be doing a great and conspicuous 
work ; and equally encourages all those humble workers in 
the Master's vineyard, who are doing an equally important 
and honorable work in the secluded vale. Leave unfilled 
either the high or the low station ; leave undone either the 
work on the house-top, or the work of obscurity where no 
human eye sees and no tongue applauds, and you alike mar or 
mutilate the great whole. 

Another closing thought occurs ; it is the obligation of 
every individual Christian to do the work providentally 
assigned him with cheerfulness and zeal. The field to be 



254 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

occupied by Christian effort is a broad one. Instruction of all 
sorts and of infinite importance is to be given ; cautions and 
rebukes to be applied ; afflictions to be soothed ; consolations 
and sympathies to be administered. 

Having, then, gifts differing according to the grace given to 
us^ as every man hath received the gift, even so let him minis- 
ter the same, as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. 



CHAPTER XVL 

Variety in Diyine Truth, as suited to produce Variety in Christian Character and 

Experience. 

^' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit- 
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works." We discover in Divine 
Truth a variety corresponding to that which we have seen in 
Christian character and experience. '^ He who receives the 
gospel of Christ finds it adapted to all the varying circum- 
stances of his life ; so that in whatever condition he may be 
placed, it ofiers to him promises, counsels, admonitions, en- 
couragements, helps, precisely suited to his wants, just as if 
they were given expressly to meet his case ; as indeed they 
were, by Him who knew how to give a Bible adapted to all 
the world and to each particular man in it." 

It is the design of the present chapter to contemplate, in 
some of* its aspects, this peculiar characteristic of Divine Eev- 
elation — ^how it is adapted to meet all the endlessly diversi- 
fied wants, conditions, and circumstances of man — to be his 
teacher, his reprover, his guide and comforter in every suppos- 
able, or possible condition of life. And 

1st. We turn to what we may, in general, denominate 



256 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KIKG. 

the literary character of the Bible. The Bible is in this re- 
spect a singular repository of jewels ; and you would be as- 
tonished at the variegated character of these jewels. The 
careless reader of the Bible does not take note of the great 
multiplicity and variety of the topics there treated ; from the 
infinite interests of man's immortal spirit down to the most 
familiar domestic incident, or the most common occurrence in 
life. 

It lays down principles, precepts and maxims, which are 
applicable in every condition of life. It administers a rebuke, 
whispers a warning, plies a threatening, issues a command, 
waves an invitation, soothes a grief, assumes the angel of 
mercy towards the afflicted, and heals the broken heart, as the 
varied and ever-changing circumstances of human life require. 
Its great and simple theme is human salvation through an in- 
carnate God. The design of Eevelation is to unfold this 
simple, sublime theme. In order to this, it was needful that 
the character of God should be revealed — his inflexible justice, 
his unspotted holiness, and his overflowing goodness and 
mercy — that the purity, the righteousness, and infinite impor- 
tance of the Divine law should be understood, that the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin should, in every possible form and 
condition of life, and in all its moral turpitude, be illustrated ; 
its corrupting, desolating, damning effects on the human 
soul and its debasing influences on the social and civil con- 
dition of man should be portrayed — that the great remedial 
scheme of rescuing man from sin should be brought to light 
through the ordained Mediator, and his Divine character be- 
come confirmed by the teachings of heavenly wisdom, by 
signs and wonders and many mighty w^orks, and that the 



VABIOUS TOPICS OF REVELATION. 257 

whole system of doctrines and duties should be taught and 
variously, illustrated. 

All these various topics must be narrated, discussed and 
variously unfolded. And were we to go no further, we at once 
perceive what a multiplicity of subjects must be treated of in 
the Bible. And what adds vastly to the variety, is that all 
these subjects are illustrated and enforced in such a variety of 
ways. It is line upon line and precept upon precept. The 
same truth, the same fact or doctrine or precept, is presented 
in so many aspects, and urged by so many considerations. 

But the field covered by the Bible is vastly broader. 
There must needs be a theatre on which the great drama of 
redemption must be acted. This must be fitted up as a suit- 
able habitation for intelligent creatures. It must become not 
only a theatre for the unfolding of the mysteries of redemption, 
the maturing and consummating of the plans and purposes of 
the Divine mercy in respect to man's salvation, and the carry- 
ing out, in all its benevolent details, the one great scheme, 
but on the other hand, this earth should be not the less the 
theatre on which should be developed the evil of sin — the tur- 
pitude and inveteracy of the disease which it is proposed to 
heal. Here the poisonous seed should be planted — ^here vege- 
tate in a prolific soil — here send up its bitter plants, which 
should grow and blossom and bring forth, in all its vile 
luxuriance, its bitter fruits. 

In order to meet man's wants, and to satisfy his reasonable 
inquiries, what an extensive and multifarious history must the 
Bible then contain. The pious, reflecting mind is not satis- 
fied simply to know that this world exists, fitted up in so 
much beauty, richness and variety. But he wishes to know 



258 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

who is its maker? who the author of all these wonderful 
works, and mysterious arrangements of creation and Provi- 
dence ? who the controller and preserver of the great system 1 
Why all was made and so carefully governed ? He needs a uni- 
versal history — an ancient history, which reaches h-^ck to the 
beginning of time; and forward to the end of time. The 
Bible is such a history. It is a history of the world — of its 
origin and 'authorship — of its fitting up for the habitation of 
man — of the origin and character of its first inhabitants and 
their occupancy of the earth — of the apostasy of the progeni- 
tors of our race, and the " death and all its woes," which followed 
in its train. It is a history of that wonderful plan of recovery 
from the ruins of sin and of restoration to the favor of God. 
It is a history, too, of all the great nations of the earth, and of 
all the great events from the beginning to the end of time. 
What a multitude of topics are embraced, what a long series 
of generations have their great and leading events chronicled 
in this book. How varied, then, must be its history ! 

But the Bible is vastly more than a chronicler of the past 
or a true mirror of the present. Prophecy is unwritten history, 
painted in symbol or seen in vision or dream or type or 
shadow, or communicated to some favored minds, to be trans- 
ferred to the sacred page for the edification of all future gene- 
rations. As the scroll of the mysterious future unrolls, the 
symbol or type fades away and the veritable page of history 
takes its place. 

The Bible as merely an historical book covers an exceed- 
ingly broad and varied field. 

I have alluded to other topics detailed in the Bible which fur- 
ther illustrate its varied teachin "js. The beauties of holiness are 



si:n" and its bitter fruits illustrated. 259 

to be unfolded ; the truth of our religion to be defended and 
confirmed ; the excellencies of the gospel to be tested in its re- 
forming, civilizing, and sanctifying efficacies ; the influences 
of religion to be shown in all their bearings on the various con- 
ditions of life both now and hereafter. To show all these things, 
what a variety of instructions, histories, narratives, biographies, 
the Bible must contain — what civil, social, domestic and indi- 
vidual histories must be narrated, in order to bring out and 
present in their proper light all the practical excellencies and 
every-day benefits of our Eeligion. 

On the other hand, sin and all its bitter fruits, must be 
correspondingly, or by way of contrast, illustrated. It is as 
much the plan of the Divine author to deter from sin and its 
final ruin as to attract by holiness. Hence the Bible is singu- 
larly prolific in its illustrations of the evil of sin — ^how offensive 
it is in the sight of God — how blighting it is in all its develop- 
ments in this world, and how finally damning to the immortal 
soul. The Bible, therefore, not the less abounds in histories, 
biographies and narratives illustrative of this sad topic. 

One can scarcely overlook the delightful fact that the Bible 
presents such a variety of considerations, expressed in every 
conceivable form, to deter men from sin ; and so many and 
such various motives to lead them in the paths of righteous- 
ness. Nor would we overlook the vast variety of topics, 
thoughts and considerations, as expressed in ten thousand dif- 
ferent ways, which are designed to excite and cherish in the 
soul the devotional feelings. The motives thus held out to 
draw men to God are more than we can number. 

Again, the style of the Bible is worthy of a remark in this 
connection. Written by so many different individuals, during 



260 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

SO long a period of time, and in so many different countries, its 
style must vary accordingly. Eacli writer brought his own 
peculiar qualifications to the work — his own idiosyncracies — his 
own mental aptitudes — his own caste of piety. Hence no two 
wrote in the same style — no two illustrated the same truth in 
the same manner— each drew his illustrations from the manners, 
customs and scenery of his own country ; and the composition 
of each was highly tinged with the history of his own times, 
and the topics which each discussed strikingly partook of the 
age in which he lived. 

The great variety in the modes of teaching in the Bible, is 
not the less worthy of remark. Besides history and prophecy, 
touching narratives and terse maxims and sayings, the Bible 
abounds in poetry, parables and proverbs ; in types, shadows 
and symbols — in all sorts of figures of speech which can give 
interest, life and variety to its teachings. Indeed, we can 
scarcely conceive of a mode of illustration and enforcing truth, 
and of arresting the mind and reaching the heart and con- 
science which it does not adopt. Nothing is left unsaid — no 
argument is left untried which might convince, persuade or 
draw by example. As a literary treasure the Bible is singu- 
larly rich and varied. 

2. We should arrive at the same conclusion were we to 
contemplate Divine Truth as a means of converting the sinner^ 
or sanctifying the saint. It abounds in instructions — motives 
— commands — invitations and threatenings, presented in every 
possible form, and urged by every possible consideration, to 
arrest the erring and to turn his wayward feet in the way of 
righteousness and peace. It meets the sinner at every turn 
and corner, rebukes his waywardness, and spares no pains to 



RICH MOBAL EESOTJECES OF THE BIBLE. 261 

rescue him from impending ruin. It holds out before him 
every inducement that he should choose the way of life. 

And in like manner the child of God, who desires that he 
may grow in grace and in a knowledge of God his Saviour, 
comes to this fountain of living waters — to these green pas- 
tures of eternal Truth, and how is his soul satisfied with every 
good thing ! It is to him a feast of fat things. So abundant 
and varied is this Bread of life, that not a want is left uncared 
for. Is he joyful "? the songs of Zion are put into his mouth. 
Is he afflicted and cast down ? the voice of Divine Truth hails 
him to the healing waters, whose consolations are neither few 
nor small. Do the burdens of life oppress him '^ Does the bur- 
den of sin crush him down ? Do clouds and darkness surround 
him without, and a deeper darkness enshroud his soul within ? 
he has his remedy. Sacred Truth, in some of its endlessly 
varied aspects and applications, is at once the fountain of his 
consolation, and his never failing remedy. Does he sigh for 
greater measures of grace, a closer walk with God, a nearer 
likeness to Christ, a more perfect assimilation to the Divine na- 
ture, he finds the Bible doubly rich in all the resources needful 
to realize such an end. 

How does the Bible abound in ways and means without 
number, to set life and death before the soul ! It appeals to 
every passion — to every interest — to self-love — to our sense of 
honor, of right, of gratitude — it presents every motive that can 
be drawn from heaven, earth or hell, that the soul should as- 
pire heavenward. How manifold is the wisdom of God, as 
made known in his word : "• Suited to every sinner's case." 

There is not a virtue which some Bible truthfdoctrine, pre- 
cept or maxim is not fitted to produce and cherish in the soul ; 



262 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

nor is there a vice whicli it does not rebuke, and, if not resist- 
ed, surely annihilate. Its resources for purifying the heart and 
cultivating every thing in the soul that is lovely and of good 
report, are as abundant and various as all the devices of sin 
which are to be met and eradicated, and all the forms of love 
to be cultivated^ can possibly require. 

" What thoughts around thy sacred pages cling, 
Great master-volume of exhaustless lore! 

Here man mature, and youth in life's green spring, 
Gather new treasures to their scanty store ; 

Science and art, the themes of every age, 

Find their reflection in thy ample page. 

*' But more than all, what holy truths are thiae, 
What lights to guide the pilgrim on his way ! 

In sorrow's hour what solaces divine ! 

In death what props the trembling soul to stay ! 

Oh, in all times what hopes through thee are given, 

To fit the spirit for its home in heaven ! " 

3. The adaptations of Divine Truth to every want and 
every possible condition of life, again, beautifully illustrates its 
variety. 

In nothing is the Bible a more remarkable book than in its 
adaptations to every want, to every state of mind, to every 
condition in life, whether temporal or spiritual. Are you rich ? 
The Bible warns you against the dangers, the temptations and 
the deceitfulness of riches — against the pride and oftentimes 
foolish extravagance — the selfishness and avarice which riches 
too often engender : ever cautioning them who have great pos- 
sessions *'how hardly shall they that are rich enter the king- 
dom of heaven. Are you poor ? You share richly then in the 



HOW ADAPTED TO ALL CONDITIONS. 263 

consolations, comforts and promises of God's word. To tlie 
poor the gospel is preached — to them who are destitute of the 
good things of this life hath God spoken with a double fre- 
quency and a peculiar tenderness. Christ's mission on earth 
was in some special sense to the poor. He relieved their tem- 
poral wants — ^healed their diseases — sympathized in their in- 
firmities — took on him their lowly condition— spent most of 
his time among them — and especially was he at great pains to 
teach them how they might be rich towards God — ^heirs of God 
to an incorruptible treasure. 

Are you prospered? Are your relations in life happy? 
Does health smile in your dwelling 1 The Bible has much to 
say to you, how God's goodness ought to lead you to repent- 
ance — how you ought to do good ■ and communicate — how em- 
ploy the advantages which health, and influence and social 
position give you to the honor of the bountiful Author of all 
this goodness. Or are you, on the other hand, depressed, 
afflicted and plagued all the day long. Sickness enters your 
dwelling — wasting disease mars the strength and beauty of 
your household, and spreads the dark clouds of sorrow around ; 
or death with his relentless scythe cuts down some beloved one, 
and fills the once happy circle with lamentation and woe. 
You now find the Bible your own Book, written to cast light 
on your dark path, and to lift up the head that hangs down, 
and to support you under these burdens and bereavements of 
life. How does the Bible abound in supports and consolations 
to the weary and the heavy laden — to the oppressed and suf- 
fering of every name and degree ! But it is not the abundance 
of these consolations that we are called upon alone to admire ; 



264 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

it is their beautiful adaptation to every case — their singular 
variety. Here the Bible is one exhaustless storehouse. 

Are you in the path of duty ! The Bible is now a light to 
your feet and a lamp to your path. It is your counsellor and 
guide, and if you will heed its oft repeated and varied precepts 
you shall not be left to wander in forbidden paths. Or are 
you out of the path of duty ? — ^lukewarm, backslidden — stumb- 
ling on the dark mountains of sin — strayed as sheep from their 
shepherd. The good spirit that dictated the Divine word did 
not overlook you, though you be afar off. How frequently are 
you rebuked for your w^anderings — ^how frequently invited to 
return — and what encouragements, what precious promises of 
forgiveness and a restoration to the Divine favor, if you will 
return to allegiance and duty. 

Again, has your mind been highly cultivated and expanded 
by education ? Do you love to search into the deep things of 
God — to study the mysteries of redemption *? Are you inter- 
ested to know the origin, the history and the destiny of our 
world — and the more mysterious origin, history and destiny of 
man, the sacred volume is here, too, an exhaustless fountain. 
And especially if we embrace here the great and profound 
things of Eedemption, we have a theme which is most prolifi- 
cally discussed and enforced in Holy Writ. It is a field bound- 
less and variegated. No matter how profound and excursive 
the mind which is brought to the exploration of this field, no 
limit is ever reached. The mind of a Newton or an Edwards 
feels no exhaustion of the theme. The deeper they penetrated 
into the mysteries revealed in the sacred pages, the higher 
they soared amidst their sublimities, the more they felt that 
there lies beyond any present investigations, illimitable fields 



ADAPTED TO THE UNLETTERED AND IGNORANT. 265 

on whicli the Bible has thrown just light enough to stimulate 
and aid their researches, but not' enough to relieve the mind 
of exertion. The Bible is remarkably adapted to meet the de- 
mands of the most intellectual class of its readers. 

Nor is its adaptation less worthy of reniark in reference to 
the unlettered and ignorant. The Bible, in a remarkable 
manner, comes down to the condition of this large class of our 
race, and adapts itself to the measure of their understanding. 
All the great fundamental truths of our Eeligion, are so sim- 
plified as to be brought within the compass of the humblest mind. 
So abundant, indeed, are the teachings of the Bible addressed 
to the masses of mankind, as to indicate that this wonderful 
Book was, in some special sense, given to them. 

Again, the adaptations of Divine truth to every moral 
state of the Christian^ indicates other sources of variety. Are 
you fervent in spirit serving the Lord ; is your walk close with 
God ; your supreme affections set on things above ; and you, 
body and soul, consecrated to him who has bought you with a 
price? -Precious, then, will be to you the living oracles of God. 
As food to the hungry, as water to the thirsty, so is this 
heavenly manna to all such as have received the baptism from 
above. To no class of Christians is a greater portion of the 
Scriptures adapted. To them, in a special sense, they are pro- 
fitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness. They are ever reaching onward and upward 
for larger measures of grace and a more perfect conformity to 
God their Saviour. They find the Word to be life and spirit, 
in carrying on the great work of sanctification in the soul. 
They feel in their innermost souls the congeniality and adapt- 
edness of the living Word to meet all their spiritual aspira- 
12 



266 THE PALACE OE THE GKEAT KING. 

# 

tions, and to guide and aid tliem in all their struggles to over- 
come the world and rise to the mansions of the blessed. They 
are ready to appropriate the whole volume to their own use. 
Their unfeigned testimony is, " the law of the Lord is perfect, 
converting the soul •; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making 
wise the simple ; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing 
the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
the eyes ; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever ; the 
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine 
gold ; sweeter also than the honey and the honey-comb. More- 
over, by them is thy servant warned ; and in keeping them 
there is great reward." 

And in like manner, too, he who has departed from his 
God, who has turned his back on heaven, and been false to his 
God and his duty ; who has become engrossed in the world ; 
who is lean in spirit and forgetful of the Lord that bought him, 
finds the Bible full of reproofs and warnings against his pre- 
sent course of alienation and disobedience, and equally full of 
promises and proffers of aid if he will repent and return to his 
duty and his God. 

Joyous in spirit, or depressed in spirit, abounding in the 
love of God and richly replenished with every grace ; or pining 
in spiritual penury ; mourning and bereaved ; living or dying, 
each finds a " word fitly spoken " to his case. It speaks peace 
to the righteous ; rest to the weary ; comfort to the mourner ; 
hope and support to the dying, and eternal blessedness to all 
who love and reverence the Son. And not the less does it 
utter threatenings to the wicked, alarm to the careless, and 
eternal abandonment to all who lay not up a treasure in heaven. 



THE BIBLE THE MIRROR OF TRUTH. 267 

Though Divine Truth be so singularly diversified, and this 
wonderful variety so admirably meets the equally varied wants 
of man, yet there is perhaps not a truth which will impress 
any two minds precisely alike, and produce the same convic- 
tion. And so, by the way, we might say of the teachings of 
Providence, and all other means and agencies employed to 
teach man the great lesson of immortality. The same dispen- 
sation of Providence will not produce the same result on any 
two individuals. One will learn one lesson from it, another a 
different lesson. 

Thus is the Bible a mirror reflecting every truth needed to 
meet all the possible wants of man. Would we know ourselves 
we must look into this mirror, for here only shall we see a cor- 
rect likeness. But woe to us if, having looked into the glass, 
we go away and forget what manner of men we are. 

Or would we know God : how high, how holy he is, yet 
how condescending ; how just and yet how ready to show 
mercy ; how much he has done and will do to support his jus- 
tice, yet how willing to pardon ; would we study the character 
of God, would we array before us his fearful, his lovely attri- 
butes ; see God as love to the man of a meek and humble 
spirit, but as a consaming fire to all the workers of iniquity ; 
the only fountain of such is the Bible. There is knowledge 
high as heaven ; profound as the lowest deep. Do you ask 
how God can maintain his justice, and yet pardon the rebel ; 
how punish sin, yet let the sinner go free? Open your Bible, 
and you will find unfolded tl^ere a plan most wonderful, 
gracious, mysterious, by which God can be just^ and yet justify 
the believing sinner ; a plan which no human wisdom could 
have devised, and which angels love to contemplate. Nowhere 



268 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

else is such wisdom found ; nowhere else are revealed themes 
of so profound personal interest to ourselves. " Search the 
Scriptures," for in them ye have eternal life ; and they are 
they w^hich testify of our highest interests here, and of our best 
interests in the eternal world. 

Nowhere else do you find a book that parts the folds which 
curtain from our view the unknown future, and gives us a 
glimpse, through intervening clouds, of that world where 
angels sing and devils wail. Eevelation apart, futurity is a 
dark unknown. That the soul should live beyond the grave, 
how it shall live, for what purpose, and in what condition, we 
should know but little beyond a dark conjecture. And as 
little should we know in reference to a state of reward and 
punishment. Whether death be an eternal sleep, or the soul 
at death migrate into the body of some animal or tree, the 
light of nature may conjecture ; while by the light of revela- 
tion we know it shall '' be well with the righteous," but it 
shall "not be well with the wicked." The righteous shall 
shine as the stars for ever and ever ; the wicked shall be shut 
up in outer darkness, where shall be weeping, and wailing and 
gnashing of teeth. 

Would you have your pathway through the dark valley 
illumined, and a guide to conduct you to the presence of the 
eternal Glory ; would you learn the language of Canaan, and 
survey, beforehand, the celestial fields, and hear the songs of 
the angels, and catch a glimpse of the ineff*able glory of the 
Lamb ; unroll the Sacred Volume, and in the spirit of heaven 
read its golden lines. 



CHAPTER XVn. 

How various the dealings of Providence by which men are brought to the Saviour 
—and how various the manner by which the means of grace in different 
individuals are made effectual. 

There remains yet another aspect in whicli to present man in 
his moral relations. We refer to the various ways by which 
sinners are brought to Christ, or the children of God sanctified ; 
whether it be by the truth and other ordinary means of grace^ 
or by the kind interposition of Providence. We can scarcely 
separate the two ; for there is often so much that is Provi- 
dential in the preparation of the mind to receive the truth, or 
in bringing the individual in circumstances to be favorably 
acted on ; or the enforcement of the truth on the awakened 
mind and the enlightened conscience, that we cannot but 
assign to Providence a very prominent place in the work of 
saving the soul. 

I have spoken of the variegated character of God's truth as 
suited to meet the essential wants of man, to engender and 
nourish into maturity an equally variegated series of graces 
and virtues, to hold out a promise, to ply a threatening, to 
offer consolation, to proffer needed aid, in every possible condi- 
tion of life. And we have seen how singularly Christian char- 
acter and experience differ, indicating that all God's moral 



270 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

creations present the same infinite variety as we know all his 
physical creations do. 

But the thought presents another aspect ; the various ways 
and means by which men ^xq first brought into a saving re- 
lation to Christ. Each individual has an experience here 
peculiarly his own — each entered the kingdom by means, or 
under circumstances, or drawn by motives, differing from those 
of any other individual. 

Glorified saints will, in this respect, each have a different his- 
tory to relate. Paul will tell how the Crucified one met him 
suddenly when on his way to Damascus, and wickedly intent on 
the destruction of the Christians and the extinction of Chris- 
tianity. Andrew and John needed but a word from John the 
Baptist, and they instantly followed Christ. Peter will repeat 
to the eternal praise of God, how Andrew his brother sought him 
out, told him of Jesus, and brought him into the fold. Jesus 
himself speaks directly to Philip, and he unhesitatingly yields 
to the heavenly mandate, and follows the man of Nazareth ; 
and he in turn becomes the bearer of the heavenly message to 
Nathaniel. This guileless Israelite can rehearse to the wonder- 
ing universe how Philip sought him out, told him how he had 
seen that wonderful stranger, foreseen of prophets and longed- 
for by saints of old ; and he brought him to Jesus. Nor will 
Matthew ever cease to incorporate into his eternal song of praise 
the grateful recollection that the voice of Sovereign Mercy 
reached him while engaged in the fraudulent, oppressive acts 
of his odious office. Jesus passed by and bade him follow him. 

Fishermen were called while casting their nets into the sea : 
others gave heed to the heavenly voice, because of a mirac- 
ulous draught of fishes : others, because he feeds a great mul- 



VARIOUS WAYS OF COMING TO CHBIST. 271 

titude with a few loaves and fishes : and others, because of 
some extraordinary cure, or some other wonderful miracle. 
The woman of Samaria who met Christ at the wellj and all 
those '^ Samaritans that believed on him for the saying of the 
woman," can never cease to admire the wonderful Providence 
that brought her to the well at the favored moment when the 
Lord of life was there. Mercy overtook them in an hour the 
most unexpected. Angels wonder that fields all white for the 
harvest were found among a people supposed to be shut out 
from the merciful interposition of Heaven. How readily did 
Christ receive this unfortunate woman, and make her the mes- 
senger of good tidings to a great multitude from the city. 

But how differently did he receive the poor penitent 
woman of Canaan. She cried after him — she fell down and 
worshipped him, saying, '^ Lord help me." The disciples be- 
came impatient of her importunity, and besought the Lord to send 
her away. And Christ still put her off*. But, like poor Bartimeus, 
her eternal song of praise will not the less abound that Christ 
did at length hear her cry, and grant her a gracious smile. 

Nicodemus came tcr Christ under the cover of the night, 
yet how kindly did Christ receive him, and how patiently 
teach him, unfolding to his ingenuous mind all the great 
truths of the gospel. I know not that Christ any where showed 
so special a regard to an individual. A teacher in Israel is 
received as a little child by the teacher sent from God, and is 
taught what be the " first principles of the doctrine of Christ." 
Again, an earthquake — a mighty display of divine power, 
shakes the prison at Philippi. It is in vindication of the reli- 
gion of Paul and Peter. It is an arrow of conviction to the 
heart of the jailor. He comes in trembling, falls down at the 



272 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KIKG. 

feet of the apostles, and asks what he must do to be saved. 
Christ met hhn at this extraordinary juncture, and spoke peace 
to his tiDubled soul. 

Some are drawn into the kingdom by the sweet influences 
of love. The still small voice speaks, and they obey. Others 
are overtaken as by an earthquake or a thunderbolt, and are 
forced in as by the arm of the Almighty. Some are suddenly 
aroused as by the outstretched arm of Mercy ; and while yet 
their feet take hold on death, they are snatched as brands 
from the burning. Good old Samuel cannot recall when he 
first yielded his heart to his God. He served God from his 
infancy — seemed a child of Heaven from his birth. The thief 
on the cross heard not the words of pardoning grace till the 
last sands of life were running out, and his probation was just 
closing. 

And who will have a stranger story to relate of his intro- 
duction into the upper kingdom, than the once proud and 
vaunting, the oppressive and ungodly Nebuchadnezzar. During 
seven long and weary years he is driven from his kingdom — 
humbled for his sins to the level of the beast — made to eat 
grass like the ox — ^his body was wet with the dews of heaven, 
till his hair became as feathers, and his nails as birds' claws : 
when at length he was restored to his right mind, and brought 
to acknowledge the God of Heaven. He blessed the Most 
High, and praised and honored Him that liveth forever. 
"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king 
of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: 
and those who walk in pride he is able to abase." 

One, like Mary Magdalene, may tell how quickly Christ re- 
vealed himself to her ; another, like Cleopas and his com- 



THE DEALINGS OF PROVIDENCE. 273 

panion in his walk to Emmaus, how long he delayed to make 
himself known to him. Another meets Christ in the field, or 
the workshop, on the journey or by the-fire side, when at their 
daily avocations. To others Christ makes known his saving 
power in the sanctuary, in the house of prayer, or in the 
closet. Some, like Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, 
address Christ first; in great agony and earnestness they 
urge their suit and seem to be denied; others seem first 
spoken to by Christ and gently led to the cross. Endlessly 
varied indeed are the methods which Sovereign Mercy takes 
to gather in the jewels of the great king. Some are led, 
some drawn by the light of truth and the sweet influences of 
love and goodness — some are driven by the stern force of ad- 
versity or some terrible display of the Divine power and majesty. 

Nothing is fraught with more mystery to us than the very 
difi*erent dealings of Providence with persons who seem to us 
to be in a condition of life, and to possess a character very simi- 
lar. One is prospered — is successful in trade, or his fields 
yield a rich return for his labor ; his children grow up about 
him, aflectionate and prosperous, and has abundant occasion 
to say, " goodness and mercy have followed me all the days 
of my life." Another — and we know not but he is quite as 
worthy — is plagued all the day long. Judgments are un- 
sparingly mingled with his mercies. Often does the drought- 
desolate his fields, or the winds or the waves, fire or the law- 
lessness and violence of man, ruin his business ; or sickness 
spreads the gloom of death over his household, or cruel bereave- 
ment clothes his dwelling in mourning. 

And the same person experiences, at diflerent periods, 
providential dealings altogether different. Why these diversi- 
12* 



274 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

fied providences, in circumstances, perhaps, very similar? If, 
as has been intimated, it is the plan of Divine Wisdom to ply 
the soul of erring man with every possible means for his rescue 
— to set life and death before him in every possible form — to 
urge him by every possible motive — to present truth in every 
aspect ; and if it be the plan to prepare in this vineyard below, 
every variety of Christian graces and virtues for transplanta- 
tion to the Paradise above, then we see reason why God should 
diversify his providences as widely as he has his word and his 
works. "We need not, therefore, doubt that all these various 
and sometimes seemingly unequal, if not contradictory provi- 
dences, are, though in different ways, working out one and the 
same great end. Every providential warning or encourage- 
ment, every trial or affliction, every hope or joy we experi- 
ence, is designed and fitted to cultivate some particular grace 
in the soul, or to eradicate some particular sin. 

Providence is a sealed book. Its teachings are rather for 
discipline than for instruction. In reference to our limited 
understandings its events are very much veiled in mystery. 
We are but poor interpreters till the end comes. Provi- 
dence is a mighty teacher, like a great book of enigmas, 
unfolding one wonder after another, yet each remaining a 
mystery till, by unfeigned aquiescence, and a ready obedi- 
ence, we get the key that unlocks the whole. "We walk 
in a way which we know not. We labor for our Master, 
but never know beforehand which shall prosper, whether 
this or that. The hand that beckons us along to glory, 
waves at us out of impenetrable clouds. We lay wise plans, 
but they miscarry. We commit gross blunders, and they are 
overruled for good. We run towards the light, and find it 



A PARTI AX REVELATION THE END. 275 

darkness. We pray for joys, and they bring us pains. We 
murmur at God's judgments, and tliey are big with blessings. 
We run towards the doors to which worldly ambition has called 
us, and only a solid wall is across our path. We move against 
that wall at the call of duty, and it opens to let us through. 
The lines of our lives are all in God's hands. What shall be- 
fall us we cannot know. What is expedient, we cannot tell. 
Only this we know, that God would shape us to himself, whether 
it be by the discipline of joy or the discipline of sorrow. To 
make us perfect as he is perfect, this is the choice of our Heav- 
enly Father ; this is the end of all his revelations : while every- 
thing not helpful to this, he hides away out of our sight. 
Verily, ' the secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but 
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our 
children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.' 
A partial revelation, then, is the method, and obedience the 
end."* 

So diversified and strange, indeed, are the Divine dispen- 
sations that you may not, in any given case, make any calcu- 
lation what they will be — though we may, with the greatest 
assurance, reckon on the uniformity of the laws of Nature and 
the continuance of the Divine rectitude and beneficence. Fol- 
low through life any two individuals who started out with 
equal prospects of success, and you will meet little but con- 
trast in their future histories. The one is the child of pros- 
perity, the other of adversity. The one stumbles in a dark 
way and sees not when good cometh, the other scarcely knows 
the footsteps of evils. How varied have we all, as a matter 
of personal experience, found the dispensations of Providence. 

* Prof. R. D. Hitchcock, New York. 



216 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

We are conducted in a "path which no fowl knoweth, and 
which the vulture's eye hath not seen." How few of all, now 
of adult age, are enjoying the condition in life and pursuing 
the course, which, in the buoyancy of youth and in the season 
of confidence and hope, they had marked out for themselves ! 
One has followed the star of his destiny here and another there, 
till they remain but illustrations of the manifold ways of an all- 
controlling Providence. 

But of one thing we may ever rest assured. It is that all 
the dispensations of Providence, whether seemingly adverse or 
prosperous, are designed to correct the wayward, to bring 
back the wanderer to duty and to God- — to abase the proud 
and to raise up the humble, and to build and beautify the new 
Jerusalem with living stones of every possible variety. 

Did our limits permit, it would be interesting to cite a 
variety of instances like the following. These will serve as 
specimens of the manner in which Providence is continually at 
work to turn men to God, and as examples of the oftentimes 
wonderful means which God takes to accomplish his purposes. 

The first is what the writer (who was personally interested) 
calls a " solemn and terrible sermon on the Hudson, on board 
the unfortunate Henry Clay." He vmtes to a friend as fol- 
lows: "I have not been indifferent to the claims of religion. 
But you will cease to wonder at my late course when I tell 
you that under the effect of that solemn and terrible sermon 
preached to me last summer, upon the Hudson, by the voice of 
God ; in gratitude for so mighty a deliverance ; and in breath- 
ing, as it were, the very air of eternity, I cast myself upon my 
knees on the sand, and, pouring out my soul in thankfulness, 
dedicated myself to Him who stood in majesty before me. 



SERMON ON THE HUDSON RIVER. 277 

How could I have done otherwise '? Surrounded by the dead 
and the dying, delivered by the special act of Providence from 
a destruction which, a moment before, claimed me for its vic- 
tim; with a full vision of judgment and eternity, and my 
past life passing scene by scene before me ; how could I do 
otherwise "? And how can I forget my deliverance and my 
promise? I thank God for the terrors of that hour, and will 
carry the recollection of them and of His gracious interposition 
into eternity with me. Christ died to redeem me, and God 
interposed between me and death, bearing me above the flames 
and the waves, that he might not die in vain. How merciful 
to me, so unworthy ! " 

"We should find no end to pointing out the diverse means 
and the different ways which the Lord employs to lead men to 
a knowledge of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it is a casual word 
by the wayside ; or kind admonition from a fellow-traveller or 
fellow-laborer in the field or in the workshop, or by the fire- 
side. Now it is some kind act or expression of a friend ; now 
the reproach of an enemy. It is the stern voice of adversity, 
or the benignant smiles of prosperity. 

" Sometimes it is a poor colporteur, who, meeting with a 
man proud of his talents and his learning, addresses to him 
words which make a salutary impression on his mind." Again, 
a servant woman, a beggar, or some poor ignorant sufferer, be- 
comes, in the hands of God, the instrument of the most pre- 
cious blessings to an intelligent and influential family — who, 
in turn, become the ministers of lasting good to the wider cir- 
cle in which they move. 

A delightful illustration of this is found in a narrative re- 
lated in a German religious journal, and vouched for by relia- 



278 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

ble parties in this country.^ It is the conversion of an infidel 
by a child. A little child of eight years old became the mis- 
sionary and preacher to an intelligent infidel of high birth. 
So well does the narrative illustrate the sovereign power of 
God in the conversion of the sinner, as well as the singular 
methods he adopts to effect it ; and so interesting is the story 
itself, that I may, without apology, introduce it entire as a 
suitable close of the chapter and a striking illustration of our 
present theme : 

" A rich Count, of Silesia, having frequently visited Berlin, 
Frankfort and Paris, had imbibed a bitter hatred against 
Christianity. The conversation of worldly men, the reading 
of infidel books, the pleasures to which he was addicted, the 
large fortune he enjoyed, all had inclined his heart to skeptical 
principles. Eeturning home, he abandoned himself without 
restraint to sensual pleasures, and openly professed infidelity, 
diffusing this poisonous influence all around him. 

" As he had in his gift the appointment of the parish pas- 
tor where his domains lay, he called a young minister whom 
he had formerly known at the university, and who was no more 
religious than himself. These two men seemed to vie with 
each other in infidelity. Being the count's favorite companion, 
the unworthy pastor sought only to please his patron. Their 
talk at table and elsewhere was often mere scoffing at sacred 
things, so that the servants, frivolous as they were, could not 
avoid being shocked. 

" The count was, as you may think, highly pleased with 
his pastor. He told him often that his greatest delight would 
be to see all religious opinions — which he called superstitions 

* N. Y. Observer. — From a correspondent at the Mission House, Bostoa 



W 



THE POOE, PIOUS LITTLE GIRL. 279 

— effaced gradually from the minds of his vassals; and he 
added, that if he could obtain such a result, he should think he 
deserved well of the country. The parish thus went on very 
badly, and impiety prevailed in all its forms. Only one man 
— the schoolmaster — resisted the current ; but he had no great 
learning or authority, and he was under the jealous watch of 
the pastor, who did not wish the children- to hear evangelical 
truths, or, as he said, to be, imbued with dark and gloomy no- 
tions. 

" What human means were there to rescue this German 
count, since the pastor himself encouraged him in his infideli- 
ty *? But that which is impossible with man, is possible with 
God. 'A poor child of about eight years,' writes the count 
afterwards to one of his friends, ' was chosen by the good 
Shepherd of our souls to be an evangelist to me, and to lead 
me from infidelity to living faith. The event will be for me a 
perpetual motive to adore my Eedeemer.' 

" The case was thus : 

" One day the count, walking over his grounds, heard the 
sweet voice of a child in a garden. He approached, and saw 
a little girl who was singing, seated on the grass, her eyes 
moistened with tears. This sight excited his curiosity ; he en- 
tered the garden, and seeing that the little girl had a sweet 
and intelligent air, he felt moved with pity, the more so as her 
mean clothing showed that she belonged to a very poor family. 

" ' Why do you weep ? are you sick, my child ? ' asked the 
count. 

" ' No,' she replied, ' but I weep because I am happy — so 
happy ! ' 

" ' How can you weep, if you are happy ? ' said the count, 
surprised. 



280 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KIKG. 

" ' Because I love so much the Lord Jesus Christ ? ' 

" ' Why do you love him so much ? He has been dead a 
long time ; he can do you no good.' 

" ' No, he is not dead ; he lives in heaven.' 

" ' And even if this were true, what benefit is it to you ? 
If he could help you, he would give money to your mother, 
that she might buy you better clothes.' 

'^ ^ I do not wish for money ; but the Lord Jesus Christ 
will take me one day to himself in heaven.' 

" ' It is your grandam, or some such person, who makes 
you believe this.' 

" ' No, no, it is true, and it makes me glad.' And the 
child's eyes filled again with tears. 

" These simple replies, this candor, this happiness in pov- 
erty, forcibly struck the count's mind. He gave the child 
some money, and went away. 

" ' Two things,' he writes in the letter above cited, ' occu- 
pied my thoughts on my return to the house, and the following 
days. I asked myself, How did such sentiments find their way 
into this child's soul ? for I knew that neither the pastor nor 
the schoolmaster had imparted them. Next I wondered how 
a child of eight years could be filled with such sincere love ; 
for I had remarked in the girl's eyes an ardent affection for the 
Eedeemer ; I had seen that her soul was happy. In vain I 
sought ^> pliilosophical solution of this phenomenon ; it was in- 
explicable to me.' 

" While he meditated on these things, the count remem- 
bered another incident. Having set off* on a journey from 
Cassel to Gotha, eight or nine years before, he stopped at New- 
Dietendorf, a settlement of Moravian Brethren, and was led bj 



THE child's conversation. 281 

curiosity, or to beguile the time, to one of their evening meet- 
ings. The pastor preached on a subject which appeared to him 
then very singular, namely, that the Lord honors persons who 
'profit by a child^s conversation. This sermon excited the 
count's sneers rather than his sympathy. But the subject re- 
curred now to his mind, after his interview with the little girl. 
He thought continually on profiting by a child* s conversation, 

" On his return home, he was more serious, and avoided 
talking as before on religious topics. The pastor, his constant 
guest, was surprised at this reserve ; but the count did not 
speak of the conversation with the little girl, lest he should be 
ridiculed. 

" A week afterwards he was called by his business to journey 
on the frontiers of Austria. His road led him to Gnadenfrey, 
another settlement of Moravian Brethren. He arrived there 
at night. ' The next morning,' says he, ' I heard the bells 
ring, and was told it was the children's festival. The director 
allowed me to attend the love feast^ and the children's singing 
pleased me much. I went also to the evening meeting. The 
preacher delivered a touching discourse on the text : " Have 
ye never read. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou 
hast perfected praise?" (Matt. xxi. 16.) At the close of 
this sermon the pastor made an affecting prayer, in which he 
commended to the church's remembrance children and youth. 
This service made upon me so strong an impression, that I am 
sure it will last throughout eternity. I was bathed in tears. I 
felt something which I had never experienced in my life before. 
The question which the persecutor Saul addressed to Jesus on 
the way to Damascus : '^Lord^ what wilt thou have me to do?'^ 
— this question arose in my troubled soul. I continued to 



282 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

weep bitterly till a sweet peace had penetrated my heart. I 
felt then a tranquillity which words cannot express. I was 
convinced, to my great astonishment, that the name of Jesus 
— that name which I could not hear formerly without con- 
tempt — was become to me infinitely dear and precious, and 
that I had obtained mercy." 

The noble Count of Silesia marches now faithfully under 
the holy banner of Jesus Christ, admiring and blessing the 
ways of Providence. Probably the most learned theological 
arguments would have been powerless against his arrogant 
skepticism; but what learning was incapable of doing, the 
Lord did by means of a child. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

Man's varied wants: Food— Clothing— Habitation— Luxuries. Land, Sea, Mine, 
Forest, Eiver taxed to supply these wants.. Mental Wants,— Moral "Wants. 

I HAVE already extended my remarks on man beyond my 
original design. Yet there remains another topic not to be 
overlooked. I refer to the singular provision made to meet 
mar^s wants^ and the abundant resources which administer 
to his happiness. 

Is it asked again why God so singularly variegates his 
works and his ways ? — why he multiplies the creatures of his 
hand in such endless profusion ? We may return, at least, a 
partial answer. He does it, no doubt, to make himself known 
to man. Such power over matter as to mould a few elemen- 
tary substances into such an infinite number of forms, and to 
give them such an endless variety of natures, characters and 
uses, each distinct from every other, attests his infinite power 
and universal control over every particle of matter in the 
material universe. His wisdom, his exhaustless goodness to 
his creatures, is manifest in this peculiarity of the Divine 
mode of working. And yet more strikingly illustrative of the 
Divine skill are the multifarious ways of his working in refer- 
ence to mind. Its connection, in any conceivable form or for 
any purpose, with gross matter, is sufBciently marvellous. And 



284 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

more God-like yet is the wisdom and skill displayed in the 
creation of such gradations and varieties of mind ; its capa- 
bilities, habits and tastes are so wonderfully variegated. In 
giving existence to all these mental diversities, God has made 
a beautiful revelation of himself. It is only in harmony with 
what he has done in his material creations. In this respect, 
too, he makes known in his manifold works, his manifold wis- 
dom and goodness. 

Another reason why God is at so much pains to variegate 
his works is found in his love to minister, in all the plenitude 
of his goodness, to the wants of his creatures, especially his 
intelligent creatures. The Divine beneficence is as a full and 
overflowing fountain; its pent-up waters in every direction 
seeking an egress. The Divine mind is ever intent on devis- 
ing ways for new manifestations of his benevolence. God 
delights in the happiness of his creatures. 

We have seen in the preceding chapter how God reveals 
himself, in the peculiar feature of his works which we have 
been contemplating ; magnifying, in every new creation, his 
wisdom and goodness beyond all human thought or concep- 
tion. We shall now endeavor to get some just idea, how God, 
by a never-ceasing diversity of his works, meets the equally 
diversified wants of his creatures. 

The wants of man may be ranged in three general classes : 
physical, intellectual and moral. We specify man because 
he is the noblest creature of God ; and his wants, especially in 
his civilized condition, are vastly more numerous and varied 
than those of any other class of animals. 

First, how numerous are man's physical wants, and how 
correspondingly abundant is the supply! His food, clothing. 



man's endless wants. 285 

habitation, luxury, means of defence, facilities and means of 
locomotion, all combine to make constant and the most liberal 
demands for their supply : and in like manner the preservation 
of health, and all the social and domestic comforts and enjoy- 
ments of man. The wants of man are very much in proportion 
to his civilization. As he rises in the scale of being from the 
savage state his wants constantly increase. As a savage, his 
food is scarcely more than the raw material, badly cooked, badly 
served, and scarcely sufficient to keep body and soul together. 
And his clothing and habitation are but a single remove from 
those of the brute creation. But how different is man in his 
advanced condition. For his clothing he demands fabrics, 
the produce and manufacture of every land and clime on the 
face of the earth. The cotton of the tropics, the silk, and the 
wool, and the flax of the temperate regions, and the furs of the 
arctic, are made to contribute to his wants. The herd of the 
stall and the wild beasts of the forest, supply the different 
kinds of leather used for his shoes and other parts of his dress. 
One land contributes the gems and precious metals which enter 
into the manufacture of his watch, and supply other ornamental 
portions of his apparel. One would be surprised at the full 
inventory of the costume of a well-dressed man, or a fashion- 
able woman's entire wardrobe from hat to shoes. What a 
variety of articles ; what different fabrics, the produce 
of every latitude, the workmanship of hundreds, perhaps 
thousands of individuals, and of almost every craft, before 
they become articles of traffic and use ; and lands and seas 
were traversed, and hardships and diverse perils encountered, 
before these various articles were all brought together and 
made to adorn the form of a single individual. 



286 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

» 

But man's wants in respect to food are yet more constant 
and extensive. Few and simple as these wants are in a 
savage state, they are indefinitely multiplied in his civilized 
condition. The tenants of the stall, the beasts of the field, and 
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, are constantly 
taxed to minister to the palate of man. And when they have 
sent forth their most liberal contributions, they have supplied 
his table with but its first dish. All sorts of cereal produc- 
tions, foreign and domestic, enter largely into his bill of fare ; 
and so does a great variety of vegetables, fruits and spices of 
every name and nation. Man is an omnivorous animal. If 
he do not eat every thing, his tastes crave and his wants de- 
mand the productions of every soil and climate. Every island, 
continent and sea, is explored to collect the means to graitify 
man's wants for food. 

But man must have an habitation — a comfortable, good 
house — an elegant, commodious, costly house, if he can get 
such a one ; and, from attic to cellar, it must be magnificently 
furnished. Go into such a mansion, take an inventory of 
every article, and of the material of which every part of the edi- 
fice, and each article of furniture is constructed, and the land 
Avhere produced or made, and you will marvel at the result 
of your observation. Field, forest, mine, quarry, land and sea 
have been ransacked to supply the multitudinous materials 
which enter into the structure of the house itself, and of its 
furniture and ornaments. Metals, minerals, precious stones ; 
woods of a great variety of kinds and from diverse countries ; 
glass, stone, brick, lime, cement, and a great variety of other 
substances, are combined to form the structure. And yet 
more numerous are the materials out of which are made the 



HOW MANY ARE LABORING FOR US. 287 

articles which furnish and adorn the stately mansion. The 
workmanship, too, is of as varied a character. Thousands of 
men and women, of every nation and craft, and every degree of 
skill, have been engaged in their fabrication. The carpets are 
the contribution of one country, cabinet furniture of another ; 
the china, plate, cutlery, glassware and a nameless variety of 
fabrics and articles of use and ornament, have been collected 
from' almost as many different localities as there are individual 
articles. 

" While we are sitting in our comfortable apartments feast- 
ing on the beauties of Providence, thousands and tens of 
thousands of our fellow-men, in different regions of the globe, 
are assiduously laboring to procure for us supplies for some future 
entertainment. One is sowing the seed, another gathering in 
the fruits of harvest ; one is providing fuel, and another furs 
and flannels, to guard us from the winter's cold ; one is convey- 
ing home the luxuries and necessaries of life, another is bringing 
intelligence from our friends in distant lands ; one is carrying 
grain to the mill, another is grinding it, and another is con- 
veying it along to our habitations ; one is in search of me- 
dicines to assuage our pains, and another is in search of con- 
solation to soothe our wounded spirits. In the midst of never- 
ceasing exertions, some are crossing deep and dangerous riv- 
ers ; some are traversing a waste howling wilderness ; some are 
wandering amidst swampy moors, and trackless heaths ; some 
are parched with thirst on sandy deserts ; some are shivering 
and benumbed amidst the blasts of winter ; some are toiling 
along steep and dangerous roads, and others are tossing in 
the midst of the ocean, buffeted by the winds and raging 
billows." 



288 THE PALACE OE THE GEE AT KING. 

How endless are the wants of man in only these three partic- 
ulars: food, clothing and habitation. But this is scarcely 
more than the beginning of his wants. He must have facil- 
ities to prosecute his daily labors — utensils for his trade — 
tools with which to work, and a thousand appurtenances for 
comfort, convenience, or luxuo'y from day to day. For the 
supply of all these wants, too, he again presents himself at the 
door of nature's exhaustless store-house. 

Again, man, in his social and civil relations, is destined to 
live in a world of disorder and violence. He needs weapons 
of defence. He must, too, move from place to place — he must 
prosecute commerce — traverse sea and land for gain, and fulfil 
the numerous offices of friendship and affection. The proper 
discharge of all such duties involves a new and numerous array 
of wants to be supplied : as roads, bridges, canals, railways — sail- 
vessels, steamers, and vessels and vehicles of every craft, form 
and size, with all the facilities of travel, intercourse and trade. 
The idea implies, too, the existence and constant and active 
operation of manufactories, and the varied skill of large classes 
of men. 

Man wants fuel for his fire — oil for his lamp — a bed and 
all its cozy comforts for his repose ; and the thousand appur- 
tenances of a well-furnished homestead for his necessities or 
pleasure. He needs, too, for his use and comfort, a great 
variety of domestic animals, with all the appliances needful to 
subject them to his use. God did not make man and put him in 
this world that he should be an ascetic or a recluse, nor that he 
should see Yio^Nfeiv might be his wants, and on how little he might 
subsist. He created man with all his wants inherent ; and as 
man rises to a higher grade of life, these wants are propor- 



MAN WANTS A VAST DEAL HERE. 289 

tionably multiplied. The sentiment of the poet, often approv- 
ingly quoted — and, in the sense intended by him, true — is, in the 
view we are here taking of things, far enough from the truth : 

" Man wants but little here below, 
Nor wants that little long." 

Man, if he would live and rise and fulfil his destiny in the 
world, does luant a vast deal here below. His wants are multi- 
tudinous. And these wants have their foundation in the very 
nature of the man, and in the condition in which God has 
placed him. Man's wants are, in a sense, the conditions of his 
progress — the facilities by which he ascends from a barbarous 
to a highly civilized state. 

Endless as are man's physical wants, God has, in the 
plenitude of his goodness and in the multiplicity of his crea- 
tions, abundantly met the demand. He has correspondingly 
multiplied and varied all nature so as to meet all man's legi- 
timate wants. He has done this, partly by original and pro- 
vidential arrangements, and partly, and more commonly, by 
endowing man with skill and industry — ^with inventive genius 
and the love of adventure and discovery — with all the aspira- 
tions and enterprise needed to fulfil his high destiny on earth. 

We have seen in the foregoing pages how abundantly 
varied are the works of the creative hand. Not a legitimate 
want of man is left unprovided. How are climates and soils 
varied — how different countries broken up and thrown into 
hills and valleys, mountains and deep ravines, into plains and 
deserts, so as to produce, as I have briefly shown in a pre- 
ceding chapter, every conceivable variety of grain, vege- 
tables and fruit — so as to give grazing grounds to every kind 
13 



290 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of beast and fowl — liigh hills for the wild goats, dens for the 
young lions, holes for the foxes, and rocks for the conies. And 
not the less remarkable is it that the same hills and fields con- 
tain all sorts of minerals and metals. And how too has God 
endowed his creature man with such an endless diversity of 
talents, tastes, skill, aptitudes and proclivitiest, that he leaves 
no island, sea or continent unexplored, where he may search 
out and prepare and appropriate to his use or comfort, the 
multitudinous things which God has provided for him. 

The beneficence of God in this respect surpasses all won- 
der. Nor is the only wonder that God has made so varied a 
provision for man's wants, but that this provision is so liberal 
and profuse. We justb/ marvel at the extent of the earth's 
productiveness — the quantities produced — the profuse supply 
which the soil, the forest, the mine, the quarry, the river, and 
the ocean annually yield. And as man's wants from year to 
year increase — a civilization opens new avenues to man's in- 
dustry and enterprise, and creates new necessities, new sub- 
stances are discovered, and new uses of old substances. God 
is wont to hold his gifts in reserve till the advanced condition 
of man require them. How remarkable is this in respect to 
our supply of fuel — the use of steam for locomotion, and a 
great variety of substances, and articles of food and apparel 
— of convenience and luxury, which once were unknown, but 
now have become a component and essential part of human 
comfort and activity. 

But man's physical wants, though the most common and 
possibly the most numerous, are but his lower order of wants. 
His intellectual necessities and the varied modes of their sup- 
ply, are not the less worthy of admiration. 



VAEIOUS TASTES AND MENTAL APTITUDES. 291 

We have seen how diversified is the human intellect. The 
talents, and mental capacities and habits are so different, that 
no two minds will reason alike, and bring out the same result 
even on the same theme. The consequence of this is, that 
every science finds a patron; every literary pursuit is prose- 
cuted ; every feature of the mind is developed. And the mind, 
not content to expatiate on fields already explored, is con- 
tinually seeking to explore new territory. The consequence 
of these restless aspirations — this characteristic propenseness 
of the mind to trench on the unknown — to secure something 
beyond present acquisitions, is, that the most ample provision 
is made to meet all the intellectual wants of man. Teachers of 
every art and science are thus provided ; books of every sort, 
newspapers, journals and periodicals, of every name and nation. 
The press is daily sending forth tons of printed matter, which 
ministers to the intellectual wants of man. And so varied 
and prolific are these sources of knowledge that not a mental 
want of man need go ungratified. All the varied tastes and 
mental aptitudes of all the various classes, ranks and nations 
of men, find, in the provision Heaven has made for their sup- 
ply, ample resources. As God has in the natural productive- 
ness of the earth provided most bountifully for all man's 
natural wants, and not for his necessities only, but for his com- 
forts and luxuries, the gratification of his tastes, for his love 
of the beautiful and his taste for ornaments ; in like manner 
God has, in the intellectual world, furnished man most liber- 
ally with all possible materials of thought, and with all sorts 
of means and methods of acquiring knowledge, and giving ex- 
pansion and depth to the mind. 

Nor has the Great Giver restricted his l>enefactions merely 



292 THE PAT. ACE OF THE GREAT KIKG. 

to the instructive and the needful. He is not unmindful of the 
tastes and cravings of men for entertainment and recreation. 
God deals with his children liberally. He would have them 
not only wise and holy and useful, but happy. He ministers 
to all their innocent wants ; supplies the mind not only with 
food needful to its growth and vigor, but with luxuries to 
gratify its tastes and to regale its lawful appetites. The mind 
is provided not only with the substantial of a dinner, but with 
the luxuries of a dessert. 

But here the great Foe to all useful improvement of the 
mind steps in, and by one of his saddest perversions, almost 
monopolizes this demand of the human mind. In the present 
gigantic perversions of the press, we detect the hand of the great 
adversary, pouring into these great fountains of mental and 
moral health, which ought to send forth the living waters into 
every part of the great desert, the poison of skepticism and in- 
fidelity, the enchantment of fiction and the mere effervescence of 
knowledge. The amount of this literary trash and intellectual 
putrescence with which our land and the world is this day 
flooded is enormous, beyond the conception of almost any living 
man ; and the mischief, much of it yet to be developed, which 
it is inflicting on the present generation, and through them on 
generations yet unborn, is equally beyond the conception of 
the wisest mortal. 

The entire constitution of nature, all its varied forms and 
types of life, all its varied beauties and utilities, each furnishes 
a theme of thought or a subject of intellectual entertainment. 
The field, therefore, over which the mind of man may roam 
and pluck its sweetest flowers and garner its richest harvests, 
is as boundless as the material universe, and as varied as the 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS WANTS. 293 

unnumbered creations of the Divine hand. The singular ver- 
satility of the human mind, and its no less singular capabilities 
of entertaining all sorts of subjects, is but a beautiful counter- 
part of the diversified workmanship of God. 

But man has another and a yet higher class of wants, 
which are not the less liberally met on the part of the Author 
of his being. They are his moral and religious wants, Man 
has yearnings after immortality; he feels an aching void, 
which things seen and temporal can never fill. He has re- 
ligious instincts, which, though perhaps indistinctly developed, 
keep him apprised of his descent from and his obligations to a 
higher power, and ever and anon lead him to address the un- 
known God as his Protector and Benefactor. He has fears to 
be allayed and hopes to be cherished. And in a more ad- 
vanced and enlightened condition, he feels that he has an an- 
gry God to appease, sins to be forgiven, a Saviour to secure, 
and the seamless robe of righteousness to gain. Henceforth he 
must struggle to divest himself of the filthy rags of sin and 
clothe himself in every grace and virtue which flourish spon- 
taneously in the Paradise above. He has the old man to put 
off and the new man to put on. All things are to be made 
new. Man's moral wants are therefore the most important 
and imperative of all his wants. 

But what provision has been made to meet these wants *? 
We have already seen in the diversified character of Divine 
truth, a '' word fitly spoken " to every individual case. Man 
is brought into no condition, suffers no affliction, is subjected 
to no trial, has no spiritual want or conflict, which does not 
meet a word of comfort or hope in the Sacred Volume. Man 
must have faith or he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven ; he 



294 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

must have a guide and counsellor in Lis spiritual affairs ; he 
must know what he ought to believe ; he must have doctrines 
propounded and precepts inculcated and examples for imitation 
set before him, and motives to action proposed. He must have 
a glorious and blessed immortality set forth as the great con- 
summation to be sought, and a miserable eternity as the doom 
to be avoided. He must be fervent in spirit, patient in tribu- 
lation, a co-worker with God, ready for every good word and 
work, his affections set on things above, and be continually 
seeking a more complete conformity to God. 

To meet such varied and multiplied wants he resorts to the 
sacred pages. Here he finds doctrines, precepts, promises, 
examples, reproofs and instructions exactly suited to every 
want. 

And not only so, but there is a voice in the volume of 
nature that speaks in harmony with Eevelation and adapts its 
monitions and teachings to all the wants and conditions of 
man. The profuse goodness of God as seen diffused through- 
out the vast material creation — the singularly varied supplies 
and resources provided in nature for man ; and the whole frame- 
work and fitting up and furnishing the Great Palace of Nature, 
proclaim alike and in the most varied accents of love, lessons 
of gratitude and obligation to God, and of adoration and 
praise. The power of God as displayed in the vastness of crea- 
tion — in a control over such mighty masses of matter as make 
up the material creation, and over such mighty subordinate 
powers as the earthquake, the volcano, the tempest, the ocean, 
the electric fluid which speaks in the thunder, and executes 
the Divine behests in the lightning, in the skill and wisdom 
as seen in the endlessly numerous and the infinitely minute 



NATURE A SOURCE OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 295 

creation of the wonderful Author ; and the goodness, again, as 
seen in the harmonious tendencies in all these works, to work 
out the great purposes of the Divine benevolence, and there 
are ten thousand adaptations to promote the happiness of man 
— to propound to the reflecting mind topics of the most ex- 
pansive thought, and of the profoundest interest. Exhaustless, 
indeed, are the resources with which nature supplies the moral 
wants of man. 

To the devoutly pious mind the works of nature are a rich 
source of religious instruction. He heartily responds to the oft- 
repeated effusions of the pious King of Israel. The power,, 
wisdom and goodness here so wonderfully manifest, are sources 
of the most instructive meditation : '' Lord, how manifold are 
thy works ! In wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is 
full of thy riches." " Many, Lord my God, are thy won- 
derful works that thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are 
to us ward : if I would declare and speak of them they are 
more than can., be numbered." " I meditated on all thy 
works ; I muse on the work of thy hand." And the most 
wonderful of all is the workmanship of the human body. "I 
will praise thee," says David, " for I am fearfully and wonder- 
fully made : marvellous are thy works ! How precious are thy 
wonderful contrivances in relation to me, God ! How great 
is the sum of them ! If I should count them they are more in 
number than the sand." 

Nor is this all. Generously as Eevelation and Nature sup- 
ply the spiritual wants of man — rich and boundless as are 
these sources of instruction and comfort, there remains another 
that is scarcely less so. God has made a no less interesting 
or less ample provision for the spiritual necessities of his 



296 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

people in the singularly diversified dispensations of his provi- 
dence. 

We are surprised at the great preponderance of propitious 
or merciful providences over those which seem to us to be ad- 
verse and afflictive. Every honest heart confesses that good- 
ness and mercy have followed him all the days of his life. 
Prosperity, health, plenty, is the rule of Providence. Afflic- 
tions, destitutions, disease, judgments are the exceptions. Our 
mercies are constant; our privations, losses and sufferings, 
casual. We are not left a moment without some kind token 
•of our Father's love and protecting care. Even when we are 
smarting under his fatherly chastisements, and suffering the 
most severely, we may be suffering the privation of only one 
out of a thousand of our blessings. Our song is still of mercy 
and not of judgment. Our brief period of probation is especial- 
ly a dispensation of mercy. God seems to have so diversified 
his providences as to bring out his mercy and benevolence to his 
creatures in every possible form. We are encircled in the 
arms of his mercies ; the banner over us is his unceasing love. 

How singularly rich, then, are God's providences in admo- 
nition, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. 
They do not more bountifully administer to man's physical 
wants than they do to his moral and religious wants. " His 
goodness leadeth thee to repentance." This ever-diversified 
and never-ceasing providential goodness is fitted to, and, where 
not wickedly resisted, does bring men to a cordial acknowl- 
edgment of the Father of spirits, and into humble allegiance 
to the Great King. Providence is the third if not the second 
great Teacher of man. Providence has a thousand tongues : 
speaks peace to the troubled spirit, comfort to the afflicted, hope 



ADVERSE PROVIDENCES. 297 

to the despairing, plenty to those who want, health to the sick, 
and to the guilty, intimates a pardon. No one that reverently 
heeds the voice of Providence, is likely to be left to any very 
serious departures from God. 

But it is not merciful providences alone that teach the great 
lessons intimated. Providential dealings severe as death, and 
dark as the grave, may come laden with mercy, and, in the 
end, work out a joyous result. Their lessons are oftentimes 
more salutary, and the impressions they make more lasting 
than the providences which come gilded with the golden tints 
of mercy. " Thou art a God that hidest thyself." Some of the 
darkest providences are the channels through which flow into 
the soul some of Heaven's richest blessings. God sits as the 
refiner of silver, and though he may suffer the heat of the fur- 
nace to rise to its greatest intensity, he will, on that very ac- 
count, bring out the silver more perfectly refined. 

Adverse providences are not the less our schoolmasters to 
chasten our spirits, to humble our ambition, to rebuke our 
pride and selfishness ; to moderate our desires for this world, 
and compel us to go out from ourselves and seek after the great 
realities of the eternal world, and the favor and friendship of 
the great God— to choose him for our portion, to yield up our 
spirits, for time and ei;ernity, in humble obedience to his will. 
13* 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Man designed and adapted to a high State of Civilization in this Life, and a high State 
of Exaltation and G-lory in the Life to come : or, the Model Man. 

All the Divine arrangements in Nature, and all varied provisions 
of Providence indicate that man is designed for a high state of 
civilization and improvement. This is a legitimate inference 
from what has already been said in preceding chapters. His 
multiplied physical wants, his enlarged mental powers and ca- 
pacities — his singular versatility of genius — his as yet un- 
known capacities of mind, and capabilities of improvement— 
his native aspirations, always reaching after something beyond 
what he has — his gregarious propensities and habits, and his 
social qualities and disposition to aid and be aided by his fel- 
low-man, indicate such a destiny. And, more than all, those 
unsatisfied desires and infinite aspirations which belong to his 
immortal being, and meet their fulness only beyond the skies, 
point out man as capacitated to occupy a rank among the 
creatures of God, and to do a work in some future sphere of 
activity, which is as yet but very partially developed. 

What we have called man's gregarious propensities and 
habits, have a more important bearing on his social progress 
and general improvement than may at first be supposed. It is 
these "social desires and feelings which produce cities and 



WHAT MAKES CITIES, STATES AKD LAWS. 299 

states, laws and institntions, arts and civilization." Man, as 
an isolated being — as divorced from all the influences of 
social intercourse and the mutual aid of his fellows, is scarcely 
above the brute. His food is of the simplest and coarsest kind ; 
his clothing of the rudest sort ; his habitation a den in the 
earth, or a structure such as his own unskilled hands could 
erect from the scantiest materials of the rudest sort. Com- 
merce w^ould be unknown, and no public enterprise could be 
prosecuted. Nearly all the comforts and conveniences of life, 
and all the improvements in society are the results of man's com- 
lined efforts and skill. It is only when enterprise and labor, 
numbers and capital are made to concentrate in cities ; and 
States are organized, governments formed and sustained, and 
wise and humane laws are enacted, and useful institutions are 
maintained, that man advances from a savage to a civilized, 
condition. And his advancement is in proportion as the 
wealth, and influence, and concentrated numbers of cities are 
employed to promote the highest interest of man ; and as the 
State is pure, and the laws and institutions of the nation are 
just and humane, and well sustained. 

Would we calculate the position which man is fitted to oc- 
cupy in the scale of human advancement, we must be able to 
estimate, first, all the personal capabilities, both of body and 
mind, which he may bring to bear on the advancement of his 
condition when he shall be in a position to use them without 
let or hindrance; and, then, all the resources and facilities 
which external nature affords him, when these resources and 
facilities shall no longer be perverted, and employed, as they 
too often are, to hinder his progress. 

The apostasy has laid man low. Sin has degraded him — 



300 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

weakened and perverted the powers of his mind, and corrupted 
the affections of his heart. It has vilely arrested his noble as- 
pirings heavenward, and plunged him into the abyss of moral 
turpitude. And so debasing, corrupting and belittling has 
been the influence of sin on the character and condition of man, 
that we now scarcely recognize him as that noble, high and 
holy being which God created. We can, therefore, now do lit- 
tle more than infer what the primeval state of man was, and 
what his restored state shall be, from the present longings of 
the human soul for a better portion, from the wants it feels, 
and from the superabounding supplies which Providence has 
provided to meet all man's desires and necessities. From 
these things we may get some correct idea of what man shall 
yet be. 

Every generation of men has had in hope and prospect, a 
golden age, when man shall realize, in a much higher, happier 
and holier state than he yet has, all that prophets have fore- 
told, all that God has promised, and all that the expensive and 
profuse provisions for man's progress which Providence has sup- 
plied to his hand. The pleasing hopes which angels enter- 
tained of man at his creation, and when in Eden they held fre- 
quent and sweet converse with him, shall be realized. Made 
but a little lower than the angels, he shall yet arise from the 
dust of his debasement and reassume his seat among the high 
and holy inhabitants^ — the principalities and powers of the 
heavenly state. 

The theme illustrated in the present volume throws some 
light on the inquiry. What shall be the character and condi- 
tion of man when he shall attain to that higher destiny which 



MAN IN HIS HIGHER DESTINY. 301 

awaits him in time — and also, what man shall be in his bliss- 
ful condition in eternity. 

Eecall what has been said of the provisions which have 
been made in nature for man's physical comfort and advance- 
ment, and you see at once how all the wants of a high state 
of civilization are bountifully met. The earth, in all its varied 
soils, latitudes and climates, is made to bring forth supplies for 
his food and clothiug ; and not simply to supply his table with 
the bare necessities of life, and just apparel enough to meet 
the demands of absolute want, but with a profuseness and vari- 
ety which indicate that God will not only vastly increase the 
number of his earthly family, but that he will spread for them 
a bounteous table, and clothe them in purple and fine linen. 
We cast the eye over the immense coal fields which yet remain 
undisturbed by man, and over the exhaustless beds of iron, lead, 
tin, stone, lime and all the useful minerals and metals, and 
we get the most substantial evidence of man's future progress. 
For we^here see, in the greatest profusion, the resources of pro- 
gress. Judging from the supplies provided to meet his per- 
sonal wants and to furnish facilities to every trade, craft and 
avocation in life, we can fix no limit beyond which man may 
not advance. 

Again, man, in his highly civilized condition, must prose- 
cute an extensive commerce^ and enjoy extensive facilities for 
travel and the communication of intelligence. He now demands, 
almost for his daily supply, the products of every nation, and 
he must be able to converse with the antipodes without the in- 
tervention of months, days, or even hours. We can see no end 
to the resources held in reserve (and partly developed) to sus- 
tain such a commerce and international communication. As- 



302 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KI^-G. 

tonislied as we are at a comparison of the present commerce of 
the world with that of fifty years ago, we see, in the exhaust- 
less products of the soil, the mine and the quarry ; of the artist, 
the mechanic, and of the numerous handicrafts of the age — we 
see in the progress already made in the art and practice of 
navigation, and in the increased facilities for prosecuting it, 
unmistakable indications of a greatly extended commerce. 

But a free and boundless commerce not only belongs to a 
highly civilized state, and is an essential part of it, but it is it- 
self the " great civilizer." Commerce and civilization are cor- 
relative terms. As the standard of the one rises in a nation, 
the amount of the other increases, and in proportion as it in 
creases we may calculate that civilization is advancing. And 
not only so, but in proportion as the great staples of commerce 
are found to abound in the capabilities of the soil, and in the 
abundance of the varied articles of exchange and traffic which 
are found hid under the surface of the earth — on land or in the 
sea ; and as we see man's wants continually multiplying, and 
his industry and skill more assiduously and scientifically em- 
ployed, we have the surest vouchers, not only for an extensive 
commerce, but for its concomitant, the advanced condition of 
man. 

Such a condition implies a vast abundance and variety of 
all sorts of commodities — of an increased variety of articles for 
food and clothing — materials for erecting and furnishing houses 
— for manufactories — ^for mercantile and mechanical establish- 
ments — for naval and merchant fleets — for telegraphs, roads 
and bridges — and for the thousand and one facilities for traffic 
and the easy and frequent intercourse with all people. And as 
nature makes no vain preparations, we may be confident that 



THE THEEE FEATURES OF NATURE. 303 

the future condition of man shall be such as is indicated by all 
these natural resources, when man shall, on his part, by a 
corresponding mental improvement, be able to appropriate 
these resourceSc 

Nor is there wanting in nature resources too for the cultiva- 
tion of the taste and of that chastened sense of the beautiful and 
sublime, which shall grace man in his higher state of advance- 
ment. Is a man's character and tastes formed by the circum- 
stances in which he is placed, by the company he keeps, and 
the objects which he the most frequently and familiarly con- 
templates ? we should, then, judge most favorably, what, in 
these respects, man may become. The beauty which over- 
spreads the face of nature engenders in the mind a love of the 
beautiful. 

The open volume of nature here presents three features 
(to name no more) which go in a special manner to reSne and 
elevate the taste and to ennoble the whole man. There is, 
first, the exquisite delicacy and beauty of workmanship. 
Nothing comes from the Divine hand that is crude, uncouth, 
or unfinished; nothing that indicates misjudgment, mistake,- 
or want of design ; nothing imperfect. The more minutely 
you examine the productions of nature, the more you discover 
of their exquisite skill and beauty, of their fitness and utility. 
Nothing can therefore conduce more directly to cultivate in 
man a chastened taste, to refine his mind and keep his heart 
pure, than the careful and reverent study of the book of nature. 
In this wonderful volume aje spread before him unlimited 
means (without money and without price) of the highest men- 
tal refinement and moral purity. All nature, in this respect, 
bespeaks the noble character and the elevated condition of 



304 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

man when he shall have appropriated the resources thus put at 
his command. 

Other features of the Creator's works, which not the less 
betoken the future high mental condition of man, are their 
sublimity and magnificence — the exercise in them of infinite 
power, and the inconceivably vast quantity of the material 
creation. These are themes which man cannot frequently and 
seriously contemplate without having his whole being expanded 
and brought to a higher moral level. In such contemplations, 
in such a looking up through nature to nature's God, he finds 
the native aspirations of his soul ascending and reaching after 
the infinitude of the Eternal Mind. And there is, too, pervad- 
ing all God's works, and equally ennobling to the human soul, 
a delightful display of the Divine benignity. The great end 
of God's works is man and what he is to accomplish through 
man. Deliverance from sin, redemption through Christ, is the 
great end of creation and providence. As men shall in coming 
time study the works and ways of God more profoundly and 
devoutly ; as they shall see them, the minutest as well as the 
most magnificent, pervaded by a spirit of infinite benevolence 
and love, all culminating at the one great point, — the glory of 
God in the salvation of man, an outgushing of goodness in 
every thing — they will become wiser, their minds will be en- 
nobled, and their hearts made better. And the more man thus 
sees of God the more will he be transformed into his image. 
Eden shall return to earth, and man, made again the fit com- 
panion of angels, shall resume his station as but a "little 
lower " than they. 

But man need not go beyond himself to get a most con- 
vincing evidence that he is, both in his temporal and eternal 



THE MECHANISM OF THE BODY. 305 

life, formed and fitted out for a high destiny. His own me- 
chanism — how fearfully and wonderfully made ! the framework 
of his body, its ten thousand organs, uses and adaptations, to 
say nothing of the existence of the yet more wondrous nature 
and endowments of the mental and the immortal part, supplies 
ample proof of the high destiny that awaits man. " The parts 
of which the body is composed, their number, their various 
natures^, dependencies, operations and uses ; the arrangements 
by which they are formed into a system, a world within itself; 
the faculties attached to it, of seeing, hearing, smelling, tast- 
ing and feeling ; its capacity of pain and pleasure ; the 
warning which it is fitted to give of approaching or commenc- 
ing evil ; and the power which it so variously possesses of self- 
restoration; are all wonderful, mysterious, and strongly de- 
claratory of the skill and goodness of the Creator." Nor may 
we overlook the peculiar structure of the person, which gives 
man the pre-eminence over every other animal ; " the beauty of 
the complexion ; the symmetry of the members, particularly 
that displayed in the features of the face ; the gracefulness and 
dignity of the motions ; nor the power of the countenance to 
express the thoughts and feelings of the mind." The face 
thus becomes an " index to the character of the invisible man, 
and shows not only his ideas, but his eniotions also ; his virtue 
and vice, his loveliness and deformity ; and, in a word, what- 
ever his fellow-men are interested to know." * 

I have alluded to the extraordinary capabilities of the soil 
to produce a superabundance of supplies for the wants of man, 
even his vastly increased wants in his highly civilized state ; 
and have used this as an argument that man is destined to 

* D wight's Theology. Vol. i., pp. SU, 345. 



306 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

such a state. In connection with this is another fact of kin- 
dred interest. It is, that, notwithstanding the " curse " — the 
'Hhorns and thistles," scorching winds and desolating tem- 
pests, rocks, deserts, and barren mountain-tops ; notwithstand- 
ing all the reasons why, "in the sweat of his face" man 
should secure his bread, yet such is still the productiveness of 
the earth, that only a minor portion of the human family is 
required to make it yield its supplies in sufficient abundance 
to meet all the wants of this great family. The great majority 
are therefore relieved from the rugged labors of the field, to 
supply the workshop, to prosecute commerce, to man our mer- 
chant and naval fleets, to keep in motion the wheels of our 
manufactories ; to pursue the arts and sciences and every 
branch of useful learning; to man the press with printers, 
publishers, writers and distributers ; to supply men for the 
pulpit, the bar and the healing art ; for the teacher's desk, the 
professor's chair, and the legislative hall. So readily and 
lavishly does the earth yield her fruits that we lack not men 
for merchants, miners, machinists and manufacturers of every 
name ; for every trade, profession and pursuit which can pos- 
sibly favor the future progress of man. In this we especially 
discern the good hand of the Lord. 

Were it otherwise ; were the earth so rugged, so sterile 
and hard to be cultivated ; her surface, climate and soil such 
as to require the full labor of every man to secure from his 
fields the support of his own family, the race could never have 
advanced beyond a low state of barbarism. The arts and 
sciences, mechanical crafts and education, would never have 
been pursued. There would be neither merchants, sailors, nor 
miners ; neither authors, editors, printers, nor distributers of 



THE CURSE REMOVED FROM THE EARTH. 307 

books ; neither preacliers, statesmen nor teachers ; neither in 
ventors, discoverers nor explorers of unknown seas and lands. 
The whole energies of the race would necessarily be absorbed 
in delving the earth, and forcing her to yield her scanty sup- 
pi ies, simply to feed a miserable race, and to clothe them in 
the rudest apparel. " What shall we eat, and wherewithal be 
clothed," would then indeed be the great concern of man. 

And another thought occurs in this connection : as science 
shall be more and more applied to agriculture ; as inventions 
and discoveries put into the hands of the cultivator new facil- 
ities, in the shape of labor-saving machines, and more espe- 
cially, when the moral condition of man becomes such that 
God shall remove the curse from the earth, a yet smaller pro- 
portion of men will be required as producers either of food or 
apparel ; and consequently a still larger proportion" will be 
exempted from agricultural labor, to fill all those varied de- 
partments of human activity without which no people can 
reach a high state of civilization. 

But we may not stop here. The world of mind, yet more 
distinctly bespeaks the high future destiny of man. 

A similar line of remark may be pursued first, on the sin- 
gular mental furniture of man ; and, then, on the wonderful 
adaptedness of external nature to develop his mental re- 
sources, and to give expansion to his mental faculties ; and 
the adaptedness yet more direct of Divine truth and divine 
grace, to elevate and expand the whole inner man. 

A superficial view of the intellectual man does not give us 
the most favorable idea of his superiority. We see the mass 
of the race, strangely ignorant and besotted — talent sadly 
misapplied, and intellectual influence employed to corrupt, de- 



308 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

base, or oppress others. This is a partial view. Looking on 
man as he now is, we see vastly more to pity and blame, than 
to admire. He is like a noble eagle hit by a fatal arrow — 
maimed — with broken wings laid prostrate in the dust, strug- 
gling in vain to rise. With all the organs and energies 
needed to soar above the clouds, how does he belie his noble 
nature by grovelling in the dust. In his apostatized state 
man is seen only as a perversion of a noble, godlike nature. 
Wherever you are able to trace back the '' degenerate plant j^ 
to its pure original, you find in each case an attribute of man 
that may justly claim a celestial birth. But man shall not 
always struggle in the dust. He shall rise. Nature, revela- 
tion, grace, all proclaim the noble origin of man, and his yet 
nobler destiny. 

Circumscribed as may be our acquaintance with the actual 
capacities and capabilities of the human intellect, we know 
enough to justify the assertion that they are such as betoken 
the future greatness of the man ; and such, too, as shall con- 
tribute most effectively to raise man to the exalted position 
which awaits him. There is in man a '' restless ambition ; 
an interminable longing after nobler and higher things, which 
nought but immortality and the greatness of immortality, can 
satiate ; a dissatisfaction with the present, which never is 
appeased by all the world has to offer; an impatience and 
distaste with the littleness of all he finds, and an unsated ap- 
petency for something larger and better, which he fancies in 
the prospective." Unlike any of the inferior animals, the 
human desires outstrip any possible present gratification. A 
little does but stimulate his desires for more ; and much, 
but for much more. "- From the vastness of his propensities 



NO LIMIT TO THE HUMAN MIND. 309 

and the vastness of his powers, he feels himself straitened 
and beset in a field too narrow for him. He alone labors 
under the discomfort of an incongruity between his circum- 
stances and his powers ; and unless there be new circum- 
stances awaiting him in a more advanced state of being, he, 
the noblest of nature's products here below, would turn out to 
be the greatest of her failures." 

There is no intimation of any limit to the human mind. 
Its capabilities seem to enlarge in proportion to its acquisitions 
and progress. The more a man knows, the greater are his 
desires for knowledge and his facilities for obtaining it, and 
the greater his mental capacities. The most extravagant 
theory of man's future greatness is not absurd or unwar- 
ranted. 

Man is constituted the sovereign of this lower world. The 
animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms are made to subserve 
his use. And, what is of special importance in the case, there 
is inherent in man, the skill, the ingenuity, the power — 
chiefly mental— by which to control the w^hole, and to appro- 
priate all to his necessities and pleasure. The whole material 
creation, with all its exuberantly diversified beauties, utilities 
and adaptations— with its endlessly rich productions, whether 
in the animate or inanimate world — was made and is preserv- 
ed for Man. Without man, the world, with all its wonderful 
appurtenances, is a gorgeous palace fitted up in all the richness 
and beauty which wisdom and skill could devise, and yet without 
an occupant. 

We judge of the rank and importance of the occupant by 
the provisions which one who knows him well, makes for his 
accommodation. What then are we to judge of man '^ For 



310 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

him " all nature smiles in beauty and wantons in bounteous- 
ness." What supplies of all his wants — what riches does the 
earth hold in store for him — what variety and abundance does 
he enjoy now — and what exhaustless resources are in reserve 
to favor any conceivable degree of progress in time to come. 

" He, for whose sake all nature stands, 
And stars their courses move," 

holds a rank — ^when not thrown into the false position in 
which sin has involved him — scarcely inferior to the princi- 
palities and powers of the heavenly state. Instead of the in- 
significance which should lead the shortsighted observer to ex- 
claim, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" the 
ready response would be : " Thou hast made him a little lower 
than the angels ; and hast crowned him with glory and honor ; 
thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thine 
hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet." 



CHAPTER XX. 

The same Subject : examples of extraordinary development among men, as pledges 
of Lis high future destiny — Nature, Providence and Eevelation indicate this 
same high destiny — Man capacitated to appropriate the provisions made for his 
progress. 

Thus far wq have prosecuted the subject of man's prospects of 
a higher grade of existence in this life, as well as in the life 
to come, scarcely more than as a matter of theory. We have 
seen in man subjectively that which indicates such a progress ; 
and we have discovered objectively in all the resources put at 
his command, and all the facilities afforded him for progress, 
that the same pleasing destiny probably awaits him. 

It is now time that we direct our inquiries to man as we find 
him, and see if, under any circumstances, individuals of the 
race, at least, do afford us any specimens, such as to justify the 
expectations we have indulged. When we descant on that 
extraordinary productiveness of the earth which we expect shall 
bless man in the days of the earth's millennium, we are able to 
point to certain occasional examples of extraordinary growth 
and productiveness, as tokens and pledges of what shall be, 
when, relieved from the curse, the earth shall bring forth to 
supply the wants of a vastly increased number of living beings. 
And have we not tokens, in some good degree corresponding, 
of what man shall be when physically, mentally and morally 



312 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

emancipated, and allowed the free development and expan- 
sion of his powers ? 

We are not without occasional examples of that high type 
of manhood of which I have spoken. In the condition of 
ignorance and moral degeneracy in which man has hitherto 
existed, we have seen him, for the most part, in a depressed, 
unnatural state — like the maimed eagle wallowing in the dust. 
Yet, in almost every age, a few have risen on their native 
wings, and soared aloft in something like the native dignity 
which belongs to a race formed in the image of God. These 
are specimens, kindly vouchsafed to a prostrate race, to cheer 
them onward and upward to the station prepared for them next 
to angels. These rare specimens are ever and anon made to 
emerge from the dark abyss of fallen humanity, for the double 
purpose of exhibiting the real capabilities of man and giving a 
living illustration of what, if he carry out his noble destiny, he 
shall be ; and of serving in certain exigences of human affairs, 
to fulfil the great purposes of the Master. 

Here we might instance such men as Moses, Solomon — 
Martin Luther, Sir Isaac Newton, and our immortal Washing- 
ton. Whether as statesmen, soldiers or jurists ; or as men of 
giant intellect and mental cultivation ; or as wise, sagacious, 
far-seeing, and exercising a great control over other minds, 
they seemed not to belong to the same race with ordinary 
mortals. In them there was a native nobility and greatness, 
beautifully showing forth what man, when present obstructions 
shall be removed, shall become. But these men all felt a hum- 
ble consciousness that they had but just begun their growth into 
a perfect manhood — that they had scarcely passed the threshold 



EXTKAOKDINARY HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. 313 

of that mental expansion and moral elevation of which man, 
even in this life, is capable. 

Or we may refer to great philanthropists, as Wilberforce, 
Howard, Clarkson ; or to men of expansive benevolence and 
of great endurance and self-denial for their country, their suf- 
fering fellow-men, or the honor of their God ; or to men of 
extraordinary bravery or remarkable business talents, and we 
should not fail to discover what vast pre-eminence man may 
attain even amidst the forbidding, depressing circumstances of 
this present life ; a delighful presage of what he shall be when 
disencumbered from all these mundane obstructions. 

We are indebted to the author of " The Philosophy of a 
Future State," for a few instances which occasionally occur, of 
the capacity and vigor of the human mind even amidst the 
obscurities and obstructions to mental activity, which exist in 
the present state of things. We cite them as proofs of the ex- 
isting capabilities of man, and as pleasing intimations of his 
future greatness. 

The illustrious Pascal^ when under the age of twelve 
years, and while immersed in the study of languages, without 
books and without an instructor, discovered and demonstrated 
most of the propositions in the first book of Euclid, before he 
knew that such a Book existed. At that early age he was an 
inventor of geometrical science. He made experiments and 
discoveries on the nature of sound, on the weight of the air ; 
and demonstrated the pressure of the atmosphere. At the age 
of sixteen he composed a treatise on Conic Sections. At nine- 
teen he invented an arithmetical machine by which calculations 
are made, not only without the help of a pen, but without a 
person's knowing a single rule in arithmetic ; and at the age 
14 



314 THE PALACE OF TFIE GEEAT KIIS^G. 

of twenty-four lie had acquired a proficiency in almost every 
branch of human knowledge, when his mind became entirely 
absorbed in exercises on religion. He was as eminent for his 
piety as for his intellectual acquirements. 

The celebrated Grotius^ at the age of thirteen, maintained, 
in the University of Leyden, theses in mathematics, philosophy 
and law, with universal applause. At the age of fourteen he 
formed literary plans which required an amazing extent of 
knowledge; and he executed them in such perfection as to 
astonish the literary world. He acquitted himself in a manner 
which would have done honor to the greatest scholars of the 
age. Having made an extraordinary progress in the sciences, 
he entered, with great reputation, on the practice of law at 
the age of seventeen. The admirable Crichton^ when in his 
twentieth year, had mastered ten languages and gone through 
the whole circle of the sciences, as then known. At Paris, he 
one day engaged in a disputation which lasted nine hours, in 
the presence of three thousand auditors, against four doctors 
of the church, and fifty masters, on every subject they could 
propose ; and having silenced them all, he came off amidst the 
loudest acclamations, though he had spent no time in previous 
preparation. Gassendi^ a celebrated philosopher of France, at 
the age of four, declaimed little sermons of his own comjDosition ; 
at the age of seven, he spent whole nights in observing the mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies, of which he had acquired a con- 
siderable knowledge ; at sixteen he was appointed professor 
of rhetoric at Digne ; and at the age of nineteen he was elected 
professor of philosophy in the University at Aix. Nor was he 
more remarkable for his vast knowledge of philosophy and 
mathematics, than for his humble devotion to his God. 






PEECOCITY OF GENIUS. 315 

The world-renowned Sir Isaac Newton made his discover- 
ies in geometry and fluxions, and laid the foundation of his 
two celebrated works by the time he was twenty-four years 
old ; works so abstract, profound and sublime, that only first- 
rate mathematicians are qualified to understand and appreciate 
them. He understood Euclid almost before he read him ; a 
cast of the eye upon the contents of his theorems, was sufiicient 
to make him master of their demonstrations. But above all he 
revered and studied the Bible. He was as humbly devout as he 
w^as profoundly great. At the age of ^ve, Philip Baratier un- 
derstood the Greek, Latin, German and French ; at nine, he 
could translate any part of the Hebrew Scriptures into Latin, . 
and could repeat the whole Hebrew Psalter. Nor had he made 
less progress in the sciences and other branches of learning. 

These are confessedly extraordinary cases — exceptions now 
— ^but strikingly illustrate the vigor and comprehension of the 
human faculties ; and if such varied and extensive acquisitions 
in knowledge can be attained, even amidst the frailties and 
impediments of this mortal state, it is easy to conceive with 
what energy and rapidity the most sublime investigations may 
be prosecuted when these impediments shall be removed, and 
when every moral obstruction shall be taken out of the way. 
" The flights of the loftiest genius that ever appeared on earth, 
when compared with the rapid movements, and the comprehen- 
sive views of the heavenly inhabitants, may be no more than as 
the fluttering of the microscopic insect to the sublime flights of 
the soaring eagle. When endowed with new and vigorous 
senses, and full scope is aflforded for exerting all the energies 
of their renovated faculties, they may be enabled to trace out 
the hidden springs of Nature's operations, to pursue the course 



316 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

of the heavenly bodies, in their most distant and rapid career, 
and to survey the whole chain of moral dispensations, in refer- 
ence not only to the human race, but to the inhabitants of 
numerous worlds." 

But before passing from the subject of extraordinary men, 
we must cite a single instance more ; and this not an instance 
illustrating so remarkable a precocity as some already adduced, 
but illustrating a remarkable degree of industry, self-reliance 
and perseverance in self-culture. We quote it the rather be- 
cause it is a more practical case — a more imitable example. 

The story of Edmund Stone is a pleasant one, and I tell 
it in the language in which I find it, hoping that so encourag- 
ing a tale wall not fail to stimulate some obscure boy who feels 
the buddings of genius swelling in his bosom, yet who dare 
scarcely give these suppressed aspirations vent even to the most 
intimate friend, to go and do likewise — to rally all the hidden 
resources of his soul, to assert, in imitation of the modest yet 
persevering boy and the noble and learned man, the native 
nobility of his mind, rescuing it from all the difficulties to its 
advancement : 

" Some years ago, Edmund Stone, a boy eight years of 
ago, was running about the garden and grounds of the Duke 
of Argyle. He was the son of the duke's gardener. The lit- 
tle fellow was ignorant of every thing but what grew in the 
garden, or might be seen in his father's cottage. His parents 
had no means of educating him ; but a servant of the duke's 
household, out of compassion, taught him his letters, and the 
elements of reading. Eeading became a habit, and formed 
within him the desire and love of knowledge. 

" While the boy was thus storing his mind with information 



EDMUND STONE, THE POOR BOY. 317 

of various kinds, the duke built a new wing to his mansion. 
The lad looked on day by day, as the work proceeded, and 
seeing the architect make use of a rule and compass in his cal- 
culations, he inquired what it meant. The mystery was solved, 
and he was told that the science of arithmetic was explained 
in books. He borrowed an arithmetic, and by persevering 
study mastered its contents. 

" Geometry was then mentioned to him, and procuring a 
book on the subject, he soon mastered that in like manner. 
Learning that the best books on this science were written in 
Latin, he bought a Latin dictionary and grammar, and labor'ed 
diligently until he had acquired the language. Some oile told 
him there were excellent scientific works in the French tongue ; 
so he got possession of a French dictionary and grammar, and 
learned that language also. 

''' His industry accomplished all this between the ages of 
eight and eighteen, while learning his trade as gardener, under 
his father. 

" One day the duke, coming into the garden, saw a Latin 
copy of Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated ' Principia,' lying on the 
grass. Thinking it belonged to himself, he ordered it to be 
carried back to the library. The young gardener stepped for- 
ward, and said, ' Your grace, the book belongs to me.' ' To 
you ! ' replied the duke ; ' do you understand geometry— Latin 
— Newton V 'I know a little of them,' said the youth, who 
felt that he had made but small attainments, in view of the 
wide fields of knowledge opening before him. The duke, who 
was a scientific man, questioned him on the subject of mathe- 
matics, and was astonished at the force, the accuracy, and the 
simplicity of his answers. He then asked him of his past life, 
and learned from the lad's own lips the history above given. 



318 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

" His account charmed the duke, who drew the unconscious 
genius from obscurity, and provided him with an employment 
wdiich gave him time for the cultivation of the sciences. The 
same talents w^ere discovered in him for music, painting, archi- 
tecture, and all the sciences which depend upon calculations 
and proportions. 

" Such is the history of Edmund Stone, the well-known 
mathematician. He lived to an advanced age, preserved an 
unblemished reputation, and rendered important services to 
science. Among his works are a Mathematical Dictionary, a 
treatise on Fluxions, another on Euclid, and a work on the use 
of mathematical instruments. He died in 1768." 

Does the aspiring youth whose reachings after something 
better and greater seem pent up in a hopeless obscurity ask 
how he shall attain to the consummation he so ardently though 
secretly wishes ? we answer, " Let him tiy and tky again. 
What has been done, may be done. Though 

" * Many a flower is born to blusli unseen, 
And spend its fragrance on the desert air,' " 

yet how many others overcome every obstacle, create re- 
sources where they are not — seem to reverse the hand of desti- 
ny, and make themselves men, great men, controlling spirits 
in the great world of mind, from which their early surround- 
ings had seemed forever to exclude them. 

In a word, I might say the highest style of man is the 
Christian PJiilosoplier j' who, a proficient in all sciences, in 
the arts, in literature, eloquence and music, should lay all bis 
vast learning and resources at the foot of the Cross — who 
should see God in all things, the mighty and the minute — tho 



SUBJECTION OF NATUEE TO MIND. 319 

soul of the universe — tlie great central Object of all love and 
adoration. 

Man by liis skill and mental powers is able, as already, inti- 
mated, to appropi'iate to his use all tlie vast resources and 
powers of nature — poAvers and resources which have heretofore, 
and » for many generations, lain useless if not unknown. As 
examples, we may refer to water, wind, fire, steam, electricity, 
magnetism, nearly all sorts of minerals, metals and precious 
stones, and gums, saps and resins. It is the power of science, 
the application of mind, that has made water, wind and steam 
such valuable locomotive powers ; and electricity and magnet- 
ism, the instantaneous messengers of our thoughts and wishes 
to the other side of the globe ; and minerals and metals and 
all natural substances, the ready and efficient ministers of 
man's comfort and progress. Substances, which, in a less ad- 
vanced state of society, were useless, become essential resources 
for further progress. It is not a little interesting to follow 
man in his onward progress : how one substance after another, 
one article for food, or apparel, or for locomotion, or for his 
progress and comfort in some direction, is subjected to his use 
as his advancement requires. Our domestic animals, as the 
horse, the ox, the cow, the dog, are happy illustrations of the 
power of mind to subjugate the animal kingdom at the feet of 
the lords of this lower creation. 

Man studies the laws of air, heat, water, wind ; discovers 
their powers and habits, and then subjects them to his own 
purposes. Minerals, vegetables and animals are by a similar 
process appropriated to his use. And we may safely assume 
that such are the native capacities of the human mind, that, 
as the race shall advance and human wants shall multiply. 



320 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

man shall be still abundantly equal to the task of searching 
out and preparing new powers and substances which shall 
meet the increased demand. And assuming, as we may, that 
external nature is but the exact counterpart of the human 
mind, and the latter being, as admitted, capable of an indefi- 
nite expansion, we may not doubt that nature has in reserve 
(yet undiscovered) exhaustless resources for the future and as 
yet unconceived progress of man. 

Man has no power to increase or diminish or change a 
single power of nature or a particle of matter. Yet he has the 
power to subject all nature to his use. The running stream 
offered the same power to the wild Indian as to the civilized 
man. It was enlightened mind that discovered the method 
of securing this power and making it turn the wheel of his 
manufactory. The coal and the iron, the silver and gold, the 
copper and lead, lay as rich and abundant in the mine, and 
the oil and the gutta percha as bountifully in the .tree, an 
hundred or a thousand years ago as now. But not till man's 
need required, was his skill employed to bring to light and 
subject to use these puissant resources. 

All nature is fitted to rouse the mental energies, to in- 
vigorate and expand them by giving them food convenient for 
them. The volume of nature is adapted to feed the mind, if 
need be, forever ; while the volume of revelation, with all its 
thrilling, infinite thoughts, affords an eternal study. Here the 
mind reaches after the Eternal Mind, and seeks an assimila- 
tion. 

But we here trench on the confines of another feature 
of man's final destiny. Man is immortal, and he is capa- 
citated to take an eternal range in the celestial fields. His 



MA]Sr AND IMMORTALITY. 321 

relations to God (as reconciled through Christ) and to the high 
and holy intelligences of heaven, are such as to wing his soul 
for an eternal flight. The human soul is not capacitated 
simply to traverse the whole field of natural science, though 
that were a greater consummation than we can at present con- 
ceive ; but he has all the requisite capacities to pursue each 
science and each source of knowledge, in all its endlessly diver- 
sified windings, to the very verge of heaven, and there discover 
that it has " its outgoings in the Infinite and Eternal." This 
immortal part claims kindred with the skies, and indicates a 
nature capable of eternal research and expansion. Man is a 
partaker of the Divine nature ; and in his un perverted state he 
bears the image of his God. There is a singular assimilation 
between the Creator and his creature man. They exchange 
thoughts ; God speaks ; man understands his language^ and in 
his turn communicates with his God. There is in his soul a 
reaching after immortality which betokens his true and final 
destiny. 

We have seen how the whole material creation was formed 
and fitted up, variegated and beautified, by a skill and wisdom 
and benevolence truly Divine ; and so formed and adapted in 
all its endlessly diversified parts as to subserve all the better 
desires and the higher wants of man, and to make man truly a 
noble being — rich, happy, prosperous in this life, highly intel- 
lectual, holy, the friend of God, the companion of angels, and 
an aspirant for heirship and a glorious participation with the 
eternal Heir of all things. 

Nor has the Creator only to " arrange the external world 
as to hold forth every possible inducement to man to cultivate 
his higher powers, nay, almost to constrain him to do so ;" but 
14* 



322 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

in beautiful correspondence with this, we have seen how the 
living, breathing, reasoning thing, called man, is himself so 
formed and furnished, and all his parts so delicately variegated 
and adapted to their respective uses, and all so capable of an 
indefinite improvement and expansion, as to indicate for man a 
destiny higher, holier, more honorable than we can possibly 
conceive. His mental capabilities, and the strangely rich sus- 
ceptibilities of his soul, even of infinite progress in the divine 
and eternal life, unmistakably point out his fitness (originally) 
to occupy that exalted station of glory and felicity which 
awaits those who are by adoption the heirs of the Great 
King. 

Nor can the most casual observer of the wonder-working 
Hand fail to discover how admirably fitted are the dispensa- 
tions of Providence to push man on from one stage of advance- 
ment to another, and finally to raise him to that exalted rank 
which he is destined ultimately to occupy. We have only to 
observe how God, by the mighty arm of his Providence, so over- 
rules all human afi'airs as to secure the greatest good and the 
final advancement of his creature — man. To this end he con- 
trols the rage of war, makes and unmakes kings, favors the 
rise and decrees the end of empires, rules among the nations, 
makes even the sins of men to praise him, and restrains the 
wicked as he pleases. He executes judgments, sends afflictions, 
diseases, trials, losses, pains, persecutions ; and then so uses 
all these dire ministers of his pleasure as to make them speak 
lessons of instruction, of reproof, or caution, that men may be 
deterred from wrong-doing, and taught the vanity of all 
sublunary things, that their hearts find hopes may be directed 
to an enduring treasure and unfading honors. Or another 



THE SMILES OF PROVIDEiJTCE. 323 

phase of Providence wears a benevolent smile. The sunshine 
of peace, of plenty, of health and general happiness, smiles 
over your dwelling. God now woos to his arms by his love. 
He would melt the hard and ungrateful heart, by his unsought, 
unmerited, but unremitting goodness. The whole drift of 
Providential dealings is to arrest man in his downward course, 
to hedge up his way, to win, and to lead him on, if not to force 
him up, to a higher grade of life. He that will devoutly fol- 
low the leadings and heed the monitions of Providence, will 
find himself in possession of more of this life and a rich in- 
heritance in the life to come. 

But we have a yet clearer intimation of what man shall be. 
Divine inspiration has shed no doubtful light on his future 
destiny. 

To say nothing of the varied, rich, and valuable informa- 
tion which the Bible gives of the future life, casting light on 
man's dark pathway to the tomb, confirming his hopes and 
realizing his faith — the system of truth contained in the Sacred 
Word, its precepts, proverbs and parables ; the various illus- 
trations of real life — what to be pursued, what to be eschewed 
— which it presents in the form of biography and narrative ; 
and its historical, poetical, practical and devotional portions, 
are all suited to enlighten the mind, to purify the heart, to 
restrain men from all things which debase and disgrace them ; 
to engender higher hopes and to guide their aspirings upward, 
and to urge them onward in the cultivation of every grace and 
virtue, of every moral excellence which can contribute to that 
moral greatness which awaits the perfected man. Where 
Divine Truth is received into a good and honest heart, it is 
sure to expand and elevate the mind, to store it with the most 



324 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

useful knowledge, and to plant there the most ennobling and 
purifying principles. It presents to the mind ideas the most 
sublime, thoughts the most moving and expansive, hopes the 
most ecstatic, and motives as urgent and big with interests as 
three worlds can supply. What themes it suggests, how 
fraught is it with practical knowledge; what heart-stirring 
truths it urges on the attention of man ! The contemplation 
of such themes, the entertainment in the mind of such truths, 
and the indulgence of such hopes and such a faith as those 
truths engender, cannot but make man a higher and holier ■ 
being, more like angels, more like heaven and his God. 

God is the grand fountain of all knowledge. From him 
cometh wisdom and understanding. " There is a spirit in 
man, but the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him under- 
standing." Man has the capacities, the mind, the intelligent 
soul, but not till God speaks to him in his word, in his provi- 
dence, in his works, does he have '' understanding." He 
speaks the most distinctly in his word. Here he shadows 
forth himself; here his attributes, in all their terribleness, in 
all their loveliness, are displayed. Here truth is portrayed 
in all its beauty and majesty. Here the immortal man, ere 
he is yet delivered from the cumbrance of mortality, is caught 
up to the third heavens and hears things unspeakable and full 
of glory. Faith is the offspring of Divine Truth. But it is 
faith that realizes to the soul all the glories of the upper world 
— that identifies the soul, in hope, in interest, in final blessed- 
ness, with the great heir of the universe. Not only is Divine 
Truth found to be a sure antidote for every moral evil, and the 
sure means to enlighten, purify and ennoble the mind in its 
priesent lapsed and unnatural state, but it imparts to the 



INDEBTEDNESS TO THE BIBLE. 325 

mind the knowledge of eternal realities, and a moral fitness 
for the joys of eternity. 

All the good, and nearly all the great ones who have ob- 
tained a pre-eminence among the sons of men, have been 
deeply indebted to the Bible. Either directly or indirectly 
their minds have been aroused by the study of the sacred 
pages, and they have been made to feel the force of a higher 
class of motives and better aspirations : allow the eye to pass 
from one class of learned men to another, and see if it be not 
so. How small the proportion of wise philosophers, or the 
great proficients in science, the arts, or poetry, or of great 
statesmen and jurists, who have been infidels ! Eather, how 
large a proportion have bowed reverently at the footstool of 
Divine Truth, and been the humble followers of the Lamb ! 

Prof. Henry, the distinguished savant, and head of the 
Smithsonian Institute, testifies that he knows but one man 
among the scientific men of the United States who is an infi- 
del. This fact speaks volumes, and shows conclusively that 
the lights of science have any other tendency than to make 
men sceptical or unbelievers. It is usually your pretenders 
to scientific knowledge, or men wholly destitute of any scien- 
tific attainments, who disbelieve, or affect to do so. As a gen- 
eral remark, we think it will be found that a vast majority of 
them belong to the latter class, being wholly ignorant, or, 
what is worse, mere smatterers. And I may here add 
the opinion of our great orator and statesman: Daniel 
Webster having been commended for his eloquence on a mem- 
orable occasion, replied, " If any thing I have ever said or 
written .(fesarves the feeblest encomiums of my fellow-country- 
men, I hay^ JIG hesitation in declaring that for their partiality 



326 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

I am indebted, solely indebted, to the daily and attentive 
perusal of the sacred Scriptures, the- source of all true poetry 
and eloquence, as well as of all good and all comfort." 

Or would we see what resources there are in Divine Truth, 
to elevate large masses of men — as communities and nations 
— how it reforms, refines and civilizes a people — enlightens 
the public mind, and purifies the public sentiment, we have 
only to compare for a moment those nations that have the 
Bible with those that have it not. 

Who are our philanthropists — who the great benefactors of 
our race — the almoners of Heaven's goodness toman? Who 
are the salt of the earth and the light of the world — who the 
patrons of every good thing — the reformers of every vice— 
the originators and supporters of our humane and benevolent 
institutions, and the founders and friends of our colleges and 
seminaries of learning ? Who multiply and circulate the liv- 
ing oracles of God, preach a pure morality and the saving and 
sanctifying religion of the gospel, and fill the world with good 
books'? These are the works of those who have drawn their 
principles, motives and feelings from the Bible. Without this 
sacred book, there is no such thing as a sound morality — a 
free government — a high intelligence — a pure church — a holy 
religion, an active benevolence. As proof of this, we need 
only refer to the history of hospitals for the sick — asylums for 
the blind, the deaf and dumb and insane, and the numerous 
benevolent, reforming and humane institutions which are every- 
where the ornaments of a Bible land. 

In its moral influence over men and its adaptedness and 
tendencies to raise him to a higher moral eminence, the Bible 
is executing a higher mission, and one especially congenial to 



WHAT IS MAN'S FINAL DESTINY? 327 

its own nature. It contains an energy mighty enough, and 
resources sufficiently abundant, to reahze all the prophets have 
foretold, and all that the most enlarged benevolence and the 
most devout piety are waiting for. 

But there are provisions in the exhaustless fountain of 
Truth suited to a yet higher consummation. Not satisfied to 
raise man simply from his present moral debasement, it shall 
make him sit with angels in heavenly places. It cherishes 
every heavenly grace ; it guides the holy aspirations of the 
soul onward, and onward and upward to its God. In the de- 
sires which it inspires, in the affections it engenders, in the 
hopes it cherishes, it assimilates the contrite heart with the 
ever blessed God. 

But what is man's final destiny ? To what eminence do 
nature, Providence and revelation indicate that man is capable 
of reaching ? Shall he arrive at a goal in his onward progress, 
beyond which he may not go 1 God has not told us what 
man shall be. He has spoken of a kingdom, a throne, a 
crown — of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and 
a mansion in our Father's house — of an assimilation to our 
God. 

But what these terms in all their fulness imply, we do not 
know. The crown is a crown of righteousness ; the glory is an 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The joy is unspeak- 
able and full of glory. The best account we have of man's 
high and holy destiny (and this is full of hope and faith 
and pleasing expectation) is that '^ eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor have entered into the heart the things God hath 
reserved for those that love him." " Behold what manner of 
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 



328 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

called the sons of God. It doth not appear what we shall be ; 
but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is : " see him in all his perfection 
and beauty — see him in all his glory and majesty, when he 
shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in 
flaming fire, taking vengeance on all that obey not God — and 
to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that 
believe. 

Though we cannot fathom the fountain of redeeming love ; 
though we know not, in all its blessed details, what God hath 
reserved for them that love him ; for as yet we cannot rise on 
the wings of faith high enough to overlook the glories and 
beatitudes of the New Jerusalem ; yet, to the expectant heir 
of all this glory, it is worth ten thousand worlds to know that 
his life is hid with Christ in God, and that "when Christ 
who is his life shall appear, then shall he also appear with him 
in glory." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Mind of God : The Infinitude of the Perceptions and Ideas in the Divine 

Mind. 

What a wonderful Being, then, is God ! Who, by searching, 
can find out God 1 who can find out the Almighty to perfec- 
tion ? it is as high as heaven ; what canst thou do *? deeper than 
hell ; what canst thou know '^ The measure thereof is larger 
than the earth and broader than the sea. When puny man 
would scan the wondrous attributes of the infinite God, he is 
like the minutest insect, that, perched on a grain of sand upon 
the sea-shore, should essay to measure the length, and breadth, 
and depth of the boundless ocean, rehearse its wonders, declare 
its laws and descant on its varied utilities. His vision extends 
but a span ; his broadest comprehension reaches but to an infin- 
itesimal portion of the wide world of waters before him ; and 
the brief day of his existence contracts the field of his observa- 
tions within the narrowest limits. 

But man may know something of God ; and, the little he 
knows may seem to be much. And it is enough for all his 
present purposes — enough to give him the most exalted and 
ecstatic idea of that wonderful Being — enough to rouse every 
dormant energy of the mind, and to engage every desire to 
know more of such a God and to seek his eternal favor. 



330 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

While it is doubtless true that we can comprehend but 
very partially the infinitude of the Divine Mind — its capabil- 
ity of being directed towards, and of controlling every event 
and every object in the wide universe, however minute or 
magnificent, and all at the same instant of time, and without 
the least effort, or confusion, or possibility of mistake or fail- 
ure ; yet we can comprehend enough — know enough to fill 
our minds with the most adorable sense of the perfections of 
the eternal Godhead. *^ 

We can form no just idea of the magnitude of creation — 
of the number of worlds God has made — of the immense quan- 
tity of matter they contain — of the infinite variety of beings 
that people these worlds, and the no less wonderful displays 
of beauty, wisdom and skill which appear in the fitting up of 
these wonderful palaces for habitation, and for the supply of 
the wants of all these inhabitants. It is beyond our compre- 
hension that there should exist a Being who can with perfect 
ease govern even a single world — to order all its changes, to 
control all its events — that he should be able to superintend 
the pencilling of every flower — the gilding of the tiniest in- 
sect's wing, and the vegetating of the minutest seed. And 
much less can we comprehend how this wonderful Being can 
at the same instant and without confusion or fatigue, or the 
possibility of mistake, govern the affairs — not only the most 
seemingly insignificant, but changes and motions which re- 
quire a power which beggars all conception — of more worlds 
than we can number ! That he does these things there can be 
no question. For things could not subsist as we now see 
them, were there not one supreme, all-pervading, all-control- 
ling, and constantly and universally acting Power — and tliat 
Power is God. 



THE IDEAS AND PERCEPTIONS OF GOD. 331 

We have seen in the foregoing pages, how profusely be- 
nevolent God is ; and to carry out his boundless schemes of 
benevolence, how wonderful he is in working. In all the 
varied and superaboundiug provisions which he has made for 
the happiness of his creatures, and the supply of their endless 
wants, he has exercised the tenderest, the most fatherly regard 
for them all. 

These things being so, it must follow (and it is the design 
of the present chapter to illustrate) that the ideas and percep- 
tions of the Divine Mind must reach to every event, every 
object, every change which exists, or can exist in the bound- 
less universe ; and that these ideas and perceptions exist in 
the Divine Mind as present realities. With God there is no 
past, no future ; all is' an eternal now. 

With man the entire future is an imknown land. Every 
event, every act, is completely shrouded from his view. The 
veil is impenetrable, and a veil almost as impenetrable cur- 
tains from us \he past. Probably not one in a thousand of its 
events and acts lives in the memory of the present. The great 
panorama of human affairs moves on. The eye surveys only 
the passing scenes. These in their turn pass on and are for- 
gotten, and their places are occupied by those which were hid 
before. But God surveys the whole, the past, the future, as 
always present. 

What an idea does this give us of the Divine Mind — of 
his perceptions and ideas — of his tJioughts ! " Many, O Lord 
my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done ; and 
thy thoughts which are to usward : they cannot be reckoned 
up in order unto thee ; if I would declare and speak of them, 
they are more than can be numbered." " O Lord, how great 



332 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

are thy works ! and thy thoughts are very deep." The royal 
singer here connects the multiplicity of the works of God, and 
the wonderful ways of his providence, with his no less won- 
derful thoughts, God forms nothing, does nothing, controls 
and preserves nothing, which is not with him a matter of 
thought ; and if once a subject of thought, and if the idea be 
once in his mind, it always has been and always will be there. 
In the Divine Mind, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, cannot come 
and then pass away as with man. Of such a mind we have 
no adequate knowledge or experience, no competent concep- 
tion. Yet such, in the nature of the case, must be the mind of 
God. With him there is nothing new, nothing old. He can 
acquire no new idea or thought ; and none possessed can ever 
pass from his mind. All things are at all times, and in every 
part of the universe, naked and open to his view. 

God has a plan, purpose or choice as to every thing he 
does. From eternity he foreknew and foresaw all that he 
would do. The idea of the thing to be done, or of the event 
to come to pass, must have lain in the Divine Mind from 
eternity, and will remain there to eternity. Not an object, 
therefore, can exist in the vast expanse of the universe, or a 
change take place, or an act be performed, or an emotion 
indulged by creature high or low, or an affection move the 
heart, or a thought enter the mind, of Avhich the Divine Mind 
is not constantly cognizant. Every phenomenon, ever}- oper- 
ation in nature throughout the vast realms of creation, how- 
ever magnificent or minute, is always present to the Great 
Mind. God does nothing by way of experiment or guess. 
He acts in all things intelligently. The distinct idea is always 
before his mind ; and he forms every plan and executes every 
purpose according to the eternal pattern. 



THE THOUGHTS OF GOD. 333 

There is something inconceivably grand in the idea, that, 
while the thoughts of God are engaged in the control of mil- 
lions of millions of worlds, originating and guiding their 
motions — sustaining the balance of the vast system — directing 
every particle of matter in each of those huge bodies — pro- 
viding for all the wants of their inhabitants, even the most 
insignificant, and superintending every change, however appa- 
rently unimportant, he at the same moment exercises a care 
and superintendence not the less particular, over the minutest 
atom, act or event, in this world which we call ours. Not a 
sparrow falls to the ground without his notice. His unremit- 
ting care, his kind and ceaseless thoughts^ are upon every 
creature he has made. He formed each according to the type 
which is eternally in his mind. 

Life, in all its forms and manifestations, in all its mem- 
bers, organizations and uses ; beauty the most perfect, and 
adaptations the most wise and delicate, are but the exact coun- 
terparts of ideas inherent in the Universal Mind. And the 
thoughts of God are equally engaged to endue every species 
of life with its appropriate propensities and instincts — to pro- 
vide food convenient for all — to confine each to its appropriate 
sphere — and to direct the endlessly varied activities of the 
whole so that each shall fulfil its destined purposes. The 
insect, so small as to elude the utmost stretch of human vi- 
sion, has a place in the thoughts of the great I am. Each fills 
its place and fulfils its mission as certainly as the huge globe 
which wheels its way about its sun in a circuit of millions of 
miles, giving locality and sustenance to hosts of creatures of 
every kind and caste. 

Such unremitting thought has God for all his creatures, 



334 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

that he " feeds the young ravens when they cry : the young 
lions seek their meat from him." " Creeping things innumer- 
able, both small and great beasts " — the monsters that play 
in the deep, and every living thing — " these wait all upon thee 
that thou may est give them their meat in due season : thou 
openest thy hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy 
face, they are troubled : thou takest away their breath, they 
die, and return to their dust." And as one generation passes 
off, God sends forth his spirit and creates another, and thus 
" renews the face of the earth." Such unwearied care for his 
creatures requires on the part of God unceasing thought. 
How wonderful the calculations (all implying constant thought 
and a distinct idea at all times, of the work to be done) that 
adapt climates, soils and seasons, so that the earth should 
bring forth in sufficient abundance and variety to supply his 
great and varied family — to say nothing of the calculations 
and thoughts needful to- give existence to such a variety of 
living forms, bestowing upon them the various instincts and 
functions of life, and then extinguishing this life when its brief 
day or year expires, and its respective mission is fulfilled ! 
We cannot conceive of a mind so capacious, so comprehensive, 
so untiring. But such is the mind of God. 

If God be indeed everywhere present, — the past and the 
future, as if all were present, — his thoughts must extend to all 
things ; an infinitude of ideas lie in his mind. " Tlie same 
God, who holds the universe, with its every system, in the 
hollow of his hand, pencils every flower and gives nourish- 
ment to every blade of grass, and actuates the movement of 
every living thing, is not disabled by the weight of his other 
cares, from enriching the humblest department of nature with 



god's unkemitting care. 335 

charms and accommodations of the most unbounded variety."* 
He is ever mindful of the nature of the merest infinitesimal 
particle ; of its adaptations, for he had regard to these in its 
creation ; of its relations to all other particles — the changes 
it shall pass through, and its uses in all its varied relations, 
changes and adaptations ; whether it enter into the composi- 
tion of a mineral, a plant, a jewel or a flower — whether it be- 
come the components part of the arm or the brain of man, or 
form a particle in a nerve or blood-vessel of some invisible 
animalcule ; or whether it gild the wing of the tiniest insect, 
it is the object of unremitting attention in the mind of the 
great Former. 

Accept as an example the 300,000 species of animals which 
are said to exist. Not only all these species have their exact 
counterparts — their ideas — in the Divine Mind, but each of the 
millions of individuals of all these species. And not only so, 
but every joint and muscle ; every organ, function and attri- 
bute ; every characteristic and habit — the form, and right inser- 
tion of every nerve, sinew and blood-vessel ; and the intention 
and adaptations of each to perform the office designed, receive 
as particular attention from the great Architect, as if each were 
the exclusive object of his regard. Yet the great Mind is as 
truly active at the same moment towards every other object 
in every part of his dominions ; and all this without the 
slightest confusion or weariness. " Magnitude does not over- 
power him, minuteness cannot escape him, and variety cannot 
bewilder him ; and at the very time while the mind of 
the Deity is abroad over the whole vastness of creation, there 
is not one particle of matter, there is not one individual prin- 

* Chalmers' Natural Theology. 



836 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

ciple of rational or of animal existence, there is not one single 
world in that expanse which teems with them, that his eye 
does not discern as constantly, and his hand does not guide 
as unerringly, and his Spirit does not watch and care for as 
vigilantly, as if it formed the one and exclusive object of his 
attention ! " Yet so vast are the works of his hands that " the 
glories of an extended forest would suffer no more from the 
fall of a single leaf, than the glories of this extended universe 
would suffer, though the globe we tread upon, and ' all that it 
inhabit,' should dissolve." The mind of God comprehends 
the whole at a glance. From beginning to end — from eternity 
to eternity, all are as present realities to the Universal Mind. 

But the Psalmist marvels at the thoughts of God in an- 
other respect : '' Many, O Lord, are thy thoughts which are 
to US-war dr Man is a complete world in himself. If God 
had done nothing but to form man with such a wonderful 
mechanism — to endue him with such grace, beauty and intel- 
ligence — to adapt him to external nature, and to supply his 
wants in such abundance and in such unbounded variety, we 
should have enough before us, to indicate without doubt the 
wonderful wisdom of God. His thoughts to us-ward are more 
than we can number. 

God could never have formed either the physical or the 
mental man as he is except as he foresaw — as the thought or 
idea was in his mind — how every part should be formed, how 
all the parts should harmonize, and be adapted to accomplish 
the purpose designed. The human structure, though so heter- 
ogeneous, intricate and compound, is formed of a very few 
simple elements^, and these few elements so skilfully combined 
as to produce substances that appear altogether dissimilar. 



THE ELEMENTS OF THE BODY FEW. 337 

Bones, flesh, blood, hair, skin, nails, how unlike, yet scarcely 
more than modifications and different proportions of the same 
substances. But the selection and the compounding of the 
materials, and the due proportioning of* all the parts, and their 
relations and adaptations one to another, are matters which 
imply the most consummate skill, and the minutest attention. 
Had the bones, flesh, skin or any ingredient of the body been 
compounded in the least degree differently, it would not have 
served the purpose designed, and the whole system would be 
thrown into disorder. If the blood had been of a different 
consistency, or the bone more or less dense, or the skin more 
or less porous, or the pores possessed of a greater or a less 
absorbing power, it would derange the harmony and frustrate 
the end of the whole mechanism ; and so if a joint, or a blood- 
vessel, or a nerve were not made and preserved just as they 
are. 

All these things imply the unceasing attention of the 
Divine Mind. A moment's disregard would throw all into 
confusion and distress, and would thwart the ends for which 
man was made. 

Nor shall we discover the unremitting care of God the 
less strikingly, if we contemplate the human system, as, in 
good degree, self-preserving, self-restoring and self-perpetuat- 
ing. The arrangements which secure such singular results are 
of God ; and in their origin and constant operation, imply the 
constant thought of the great Former and Preserver. And 
'God's tho^ights to us-ward appear not the less wonderful in 
the formation of the mind — in its singular connection and co- 
operation with the body, and in its extraordinary capacities 
and activities. The offices of reason, memory, association, 
15 



338 THE PALACE OF THE GKEAT KING. 

and indeed all the operations of mind, suppose. the constant 
presence of the Divine Mind. We say God knows our 
thoughts, not our present thoughts merely, or for the present 
moment, but he knew from eternity every thought and opera- 
tion that ever passed through our minds or ever will. 

Again, both the mind and the body are largely subjected 
to the dominion of the will. Bodily organs, limbs and mus- 
cles move as tlie will dictates ; and the operations of the mind 
are subject very much to the same authority. There is, in the 
mechanism which secures such a result, displayed a skill and 
delicacy of workmanship which is nothing less than divine. 
And in all the operations of this mechanism there is a neces- 
sity that the great forming Mind should exercise a constant 
inspection and control. 

Every process of reasoning, then, — every thought, inten- 
tion, act of the will, is open and naked unto Him with whom 
we have to do. For if God were ignorant of a single action, 
thought or secret intent, of a man's whole life, he would not 
be a competent judge at the last day. Man is to be judged — 
rewarded or punished — according to the deeds done here in 
the body, implying, no doubt, the motives and secret inten- 
tions which impelled to these deeds. " The Book of God's 
remembrance " is the boundless reservoir of his ideas and 
thoughts. This book is a mirror, in which God can, at any 
instant, and at every moment from eternity to eternity, see 
every desire, thought or motive of every intelligent creature. 

We have seen how the all-controlling ]\Iind is present, in 
unceasing thought and activity, with the millions and millions 
of worlds — systems on systems — which wheel in awful gran- 
deur over the boundless fields of ether ; how the exercise of 



THE DIVINE PEESCIENCE COMPLETE. 339 

such inconceivable po^Yer — the exactitude with which every 
revolution is performed — the preserving of the balance among 
the huge and countless masses of matter, so as to secure the 
harmony of the w^hole, and keep in tune the " music of the 
spheres," presupposes the constant presence and the mi- 
wearied application of the Eternal Mind ; and in like manner 
that the same Divine prescience as completely pervades that 
little mysterious world know^n as the creature man, and that 
no less mysterious world, the minutest animalcule which the 
microscope reveals. But there is another phase of humanity 
which may serve as an illustration : 

Man is an immortal being, yet a depraved being ; an 
enemy and an alien from his God, yet capable of a union with 
the divine nature, and a participation in the honor and bliss 
of angels. Man's moral relations, therefore, to his God, are, 
in the divine estimation, of vastly greater moment than all his 
other relations. God must be such a one as can judge the 
world in righteousness. Were not then the Divine Mind an 
endless series of thoughts, and were not every link of the 
entire chain of human actions and thoughts ever present to 
that mind, how could God take account of all his rational 
creatures and at the last day render an impartial and righteous 
judgment ? Not one act, one thought, one secret intention or 
hidden and forbidden desire will be overlooked. Every cir- 
cumstance in which a man did right or wrong, every motive 
which actuated him, every palliation or aggravation in the 
case, every aid vouchsafed on the part of God, and every 
opportunity or privilege improved or slighted, will come in 
as vital items in the last great account ; and if they be not all 
present in the mind of the Judge, how can he award a right- 



340 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

eous judgment ? All must be indelibly engraven on the mind 
of the Judge. Who can know the mind of the Lord ? who 
can number his thoughts ? 

Did our theme require further illustration we might find 
a prolific one in the dispensations of Providence and of grace, 

God governs the world by his Providence. But he cannot 
be an intelligent, righteous governor, unless he have a full 
and present knowledge of all the main springs of human 
action — of all the passions, emotions, principles and overt acts 
which go to make up human character. He must be able to 
survey at a glance the entire character and conduct of every 
subject. All must be forever portrayed on the Divine Mind 
as on canvas, and ever visible to the divine eye : otherwise 
he cannot reign in righteousness. 

And equally true is it that all the dispensations of divine 
grace; ail God's dealings with man as ^ moral being; all 
hidden rebellions and sins and temptations ; all his faith and 
repentance and turning to God and rejoicing in a good hope of 
eternal life ; all his works of faith and labors of love, stand 
written in the book of God's remembrance, and all shall one 
day be" read in the ear of the assembled universe : else how 
shall God be vindicated, who casts off some, and accepts oth- 
ers ; else what becomes of that " firm foundation," that rock 
of unwavering confidence and intelligent security, on which 
the saints shall forever stand ? else one might be adjudged to 
heaven to-day, but some new flict transpiring — some new 
view of his character being revealed to the mind of the Judge, 
the decision would be reversed, our supposed saint would to- 
morrow be obliged to exchange his residence in the King's 
palace al)Ove, for the chains of darkness and the prison house 
of the universe. 



THE DIYINE MIND INFINITE. 341 

Such, then, must be the nature of the Divine Mind that has 
a present cognizance of every thought, desire and purpose of 
every man that ever lived or shall live; and this too from his 
birth to his death. And God is acquainted with and orders 
all circumstances, influences, temptations, afflictions — as well 
as all the teachings, invitations, warnings and reproofs, which 
form the character, or constitute the responsibilities of the 
man. These are all necessarily omnipresent in the niind of 
Him who shall judge the w^orld in righteousness. 

'We might then end this chapter as we began it, by repeat- 
ing, " How wonderful a Being is God ! " To the finite mind 
he is altogether incomprehensible. We can form no adequate 
idea that any mind can be so capacious as to contain im- 
pressed upon it an indelible and eternal idea of every object, 
motion, thought and event which has ever transpired, or shall 
transpire from eternity to eternity. 

The theme I have undertaken to illustrate in the foregoing 
pages, gives us perhaps the most clear and comprehensive 
idea we can at present obtain of the infinitude of the Eternal 
Mind. All the creatures, all the works, and all the ways of 
God " existed in his incomprehensible mind during countless 
ages, before the universe was formed." What an infinity of 
thoughts and conceptions ! What unbounded scope of mind ; 
what infinite comprehension ! Not an object, change or oper- 
ation in nature so great or so minute, but God is present in 
his nature and almighty agency to direct it. Not a providen- 
tial act or event so far-reaching and vast, or so seemingly 
insignificant as not to command the unremitting regard of the 
great Controller ; and not an act of grace to console the de- 
sponding heart of the most lowly saint, but God is the ready 



342 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

author, pouring the consolatory balm into the wounded spirit. 
The breathing of the feeblest desire, the suppressed groan of 
the oppressed, and merest sigh of the penitent, alike make 
their impression, and leave their image stamped on the great 
Mind of the universe. " Thj thoughts, O Lord, are more than 
we can number." 

We are amazed at the idea that God should be the author 
of such a countless variety of natures and forms ; and his 
watchful care should be over all his works. He is an every- 
where present God. Not the minutest thing escapes his no- 
tice. He clothes the grass with its particolored coat ; he varie- 
gates the flower ; he diversifies the sounds that salute the ear, 
and the odors that perfume the air. Not the most insignifi- 
cant particle floats without his notice. 

Surely, then, such a God will not allow the sinner to go 
unpunished. His vigilance over him will be in proportion to 
the worth of his soul. For him the heavens were garnished ; 
for him all nature is variegated and clothed in beauty and 
loveliness ; and for him all things are so constituted that he 
may rejoice in them and be happy. And think you he will 
pass unnoticed man's ingratitude and rebellion ? 

Of the many reflections which the foregoing chapters urge 
on the mind, I shall name but three : 

And, first, How much has God done to make his creatures 
happy ! He formed man for happiness, and then he fitted up 
creation about him in a manner precisely adapted to make 
him happy... The constitution of man is an exact counterpart 
to the constitution of nature. Has God endowed man with 
organs of sense capable of deriving gratification from external 
objects, and then not produced those objects and adapted them 



RESOUECES OF THE GREAT KING. 343 

to this end ? Has he implanted in mind insatiable desires 
for novelty — an indomitable love of variety, and then made in 
nature no corresponding provision for their gratification ? 
God has so variegated his works as to make a contemplation 
of them one of the highest sources of gratification in the pres- 
ent constitution of things, and to lay a foundation of eternal 
felicity hereafter. Eternity will not be too long to survey, 
to admire, and enjoy the endlessly diversified and the innu- 
merably multitudinous works of the Divine skill. 

Again, What fearful resources are laid up in the armory 
of the Great King hy which to make the wicked miserable! 
Who w^ould not fear the wrath of the King ! And if that 
King be possessed of all knowledge and wisdom ; if his power 
be unlimited, and his riches boundless, and every possible 
resource be at his command, so that he may bring the full 
weight of his powxr to bear on one who should transgress his 
law and thereby incur his displeasure, who could withstand 
his anger ? who would not be as the stubble before the de- 
vouring fire 1 

But God is a Great King. How great he is, how mighty, 
with what manifold wisdom he is endowed, of what inexhaust- 
ible riches possessed, what boundless resources are at his com- 
mand, the foregoing discussion gives us some intimation. 
How blessed to have such a one for a Friend^ but how dread- 
ful to encounter him as an Enemy ! Who can stand before 
him when his anger is kindled but a little ? Fear God. He 
not only can kill, but he has power to cast into hell, and none 
can deliver out of his hands. He can open, and none can shut ; 
he can shut, and none can open. If he be your enemy, no 
friend in the universe can help you. Oh, then, make your 



344 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

peace with God. Take refuge in Christ ; for out of Christ, 
God is a consuming fire. 

Finally, Soiv should ive demean ourselves in the presence of 
such a God ! As David contemplated God in his works, he 
said : " I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing 
praise unto the Lord while I have a being. My meditation 
of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the Lord." He would 
think much on God ; he would ponder his works and his ways. 
Such meditations he found sweet. It was delightful to turn 
off from the humiliating contemplation of his own weakness 
and depravity, to think on the infinite purity and excellence 
of God — to seek relief from the moral wastes and corruptions 
of humanity in the truth and holiness of the Godhead. Here 
he discovers reasons for eternal praise. While he lived in 
the flesh — yea, as long as he should have a being, his spirit 
should never cease to sing praises to Jehovah. 

And have we not the same reasons to rejoice in the Lord — 
to honor, love and serve the great I Am ? — the same motives 
to light up our souls and to fire our hearts in holy zeal for 
the honor of such a God ? All nature rebukes our apathy. 
Every thing that God has made urges us on to fidelity, and 
zeal, and holy love. While we have a being, then, let us 
honor Him who has so gloriously honored himself in all his 
works. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Divine Complacency— The Happiness of God in the Contemplation of his Works 
and his Ways, and his own Attributes and Character. 

Before concluding a volume, tlie design of which is to conduct 
the mind of the reader through nature up to nature's God, it 
will not seem out of place that we should pause a moment 
before the gate of this august Palace, and seek a yet nearer 
approach to the Great King. 

We have essayed to survey at some length the outer Tem- 
ple of the Majesty of heaven, and having treated of God, physi- 
cally, in his acts and relations to the material Universe in all 
its endless details and varieties ; and having attempted, but 
in vain, to sound the depths of his mental resources — the pro- 
found recesses of the Divine Mind — to inquire what must be 
the thoughts, the mental conceptions, the ideas of the Being 
who has reared, and who controls and inhabits this august 
Temple, will not the more reflecting reader fain advance with 
me yet another step '? But let him put off his shoes from off his 
feet ; for we now propose to look into the audience chamber of 
the King, that, per adventure, we may see God who is in- 
visible. 

When we have become interested in an author of rare men- 
15* 



346 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

tal powers, or in an artist of extraordinary skill, we wisli to 
know more of his private character — of his moral condition — 
how he wears his honors, how he uses his influence — what mo- 
tives urge him to action, and how he enjoys the works of his 
hands — whether he be happy. We propose, reverently, to 
institute such an inquiry in relation to God. 

Having created all things and set the great machine in 
motion — having given it laws and made all things move in 
obedience to the ordained order, does God, as the ancient phi- 
losophers taught, wrap himself up in the morose abstraction of 
his own infinity, in a sort of inactive and solemnly forbidding 
existence ; or does he exist in a state of perpetual and infinite 
enjoyment ? Are we not prone rather to clothe the Deity in 
the sombre mantle of stern Omnipotence and unbending Justice, 
than think of him as a Being of exhaustless benevolence and 
of overflowing happiness ? It is a matter of great practical in- 
terest that we should have correct views here. 

Man's unhappiness arises from his imperfection. Lack of 
wisdom always to devise the best measures — lack of power to 
execute them — lack of benevolence, or of happiness exemplified 
• — lack of an abiding and all-controlling consciousness of recti- 
tude, which alone can exempt from regret and remorse, and 
give that dignity of moral character which is essential to hap- 
piness — ^lack of foreknowledge which can foresee future evil, 
and of power to forestall it — lack of ability so to control all 
events relative to himself and others, as to ward off all misfor- 
tune and disaster — and lack of such moral character and moral 
feelings as yield nothing but the peaceable fruits of righteous- 
ness ; — these are some of the things which mar, if not destroy, 
the happiness of man. These are all the result of imperfec- 



THE HAPPINESS OF GOD. 347 

tioiu But God is perfect, and cousequently no possible event 
can mar his happiness. 

We may therefore adduce the perfections of God as the un- 
mistakable vouchers for his infinite happiness. 

God is omnipotent. He can consequently do whatever he 
will. He can execute all his plans. There is no power in the 
universe that can frustrate a single purpose of his. He speaks, 
and it is done; he commands, and all stands fast. God is 
consequently raised altogether above the least feeling of weak- 
ness or inability. To will with him is to do. This conscious- 
ness of Omnipotence must be a perpetual source of happiness. 
A vast deal of human misery arises from a consciousness of our 
weakness — our inability to do what we would. It is this 
which makes the future of man such a dark and oftentimes 
painful uncertainty. We can neither foresee a single future 
event, however insignificant it may be, nor can we by any pos- 
sible means secure its existence. We are frustrated, plagued, 
disappointed. We may neither have the power to ward off the 
evil that, is before us, nor to secure a future good which we 
may desire. No such source of discomfort can disturb the 
Eternal Mind. Not a future event can take place without his 
choice — not one that shall frustrate a single purpose of his, or 
in the least militate against his infinite felicity. 

Again, the exercise of power, where there is the perfect 
consciousness that it is done in infinite righteousness and be- 
nevolence, is a perpetual source of happiness. Man takes 
delight in the workmanship of his own hands, and in none 
does he feel so high a pleasure as where there is the exercise 
of great power or skill. What, then, must be the felicity of 
God, as he surveys this vast and boundless universe, the prod- 



348 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

uct of his power and skill. What power to create simply the 
ball on which we have our habitation — to balance it in mid- 
space — to ^x it in its proper orbit — to send it revolving with 
such tremendous velocity about the sun — to set it wheeling on 
its axis — ^0 give it its relative position in respect to all the 
other heavenly bodies ! But if we contemplate God, not only 
as tlie Creator of this comparatively insignificant ball, but the 
Creator of the^ sun, a body whose solid contents exceed those 
of the earth by near a million and a half of times (1,435,000), 
and all the bodies which compose the solar system ; and not 
only the Creator of these, but of the millions and millions of 
suns and their respective systems, which sparkle in boundless 
space, the marvel is infinitely enhanced. 

Now it is quite impossible for the most expansive human 
intellect to get any thing like an adequate conception of the 
power which is employed in the creation, and the subsequent 
preservation, and in the working of the great machinery of the 
universe. The relative positions of these vast and endlessly 
numerous bodies ; their harmony one with another ; their order 
and motions, indicate a power altogether past all our concep- 
tions. But God is feelingly alive to a consciousness of exerting 
such a power ; and this consciousness cannot be otherwise than 
a source of infinite and eternal felicity. The whole moves on, 
accomplishing an infinitely benevolent end, at his fiat; the 
whole would stand still at his command. 

Were we to stop here, and contemplate God only as putting 
forth a power sufiicient to create and govern the material uni- 
verse only, we cannot fail to discover a foundation for a very 
high order and degree of happiness ; but the slightest glance 
into the mental and moral world will exhibit the exercise of a 



god's domi:n^io]S' over mind. 349 

power far surpassing any thing we have yet seen, and which 
must give a proportionally higher order and degree of happi- 
ness. Man, by his power and diligence, may raise up valleys, 
remove mountains or force his passage through them ; he may 
bridge oceans ; compel into his service the winds, the fire and 
water, and make the swift-winged lightning his messenger. 
But when he comes in the world of mind he seems shorn of 
his power. He can exert no . power beyond himself — and not 
much even there. He can exercise no direct control over the mind 
of his neighbor — cannot change a single volition or purpose. 
He may present motives which may become influential, or he 
may employ authority which shall change one's outward conduct. 
But he cannot of himself control mind, - To convert a man 
from the error of his ways, is as completely beyond the power of 
man as to create a world. But God turneth the heart of man 
as the rivers of water are turned. Quick and easy as thought 
he can make the vilest infidel the holiest angel. Conceive of 
God exercising a complete control over the whole universe of 
mind, human and angelic, whether they be principalities or 
powers, kingdoms or dominions. Samuel and Job, Isaiah and 
Paul, were what they were because God made them so. Pharaoh 
and Ahab were what they were because God left them to a 
reprobate mind. Mind — spirit, is peculiarly the dominion of 
God — the empire where his great power is manifested. 

Here, then, we find the basis of a still higher order and a 
greater degree of the Divine blessedness. * He is over all, God 
blessed forever. 

The Divine knowledge, wisdom, skill, afibrds us a further 
assurance of the blessedness or felicity of God. There is 
pleasure in devising — especially if we may foresee that the 



350 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

scheme devised will certainly be executed and its end realized 
— that the means to bring it about are suitable and adequate. 
But man's pleasure is sadly curtailed, from the fact that he 
can neither foresee nor secure the result. There may be a 
failure from a thousand unforeseen incidents, arising from a 
want of his own ability, knowledge and wisdom, and from a 
thousand circumstances over which he can have no control. 

But nothing of the kind can happen with God. He sees 
the^end from the beginning. No retarding or frustrating inci- 
dents can occur — no uncontrollable circumstances ever threaten 
a failure. He knows that every event, every means needful 
to bring about a given end will certainly be present. He sees 
them — they are all in his mind as present. No act of omnipo- 
tence could make them more certain. Consequently there can 
be nothing in the mind of God like a fear of disappointment — 
a solicitude for the future — dread of disaster, the but too fruit- 
ful sources of human misery. The whole illimitable field of 
the future, with every possible event and fact, is as completely 
before the mind of God as the present is. 

Again, how infinitely must God enjoy the operations of the 
wisdom and skill which he constantly sees displayed in his works. 
I'he universe is an infinitely vast, complicated, and an endless- 
ly variegated system. The mightiest as well as the minutest ob- 
ject, and the mightiest and the minutest movement, are all tend- 
ing to one and the same great end. Yet this end is to be at- 
tained by the controlling to that purpose of ten thousand times 
ten thousand events — and many of these oftentimes seemiag 
to act in a totally adverse direction. Light and darkness — 
order and disorder — truth and error — friends and foes, are all 
to be made to execute the plan. And not only this, but while 
the great and final scheme is maturing and hastening to its 



THE INDEPEN^DENCE OF GOD. 351 

sure and final issue, an infinite number of subordinate ends are 
being answered. Tlie preservation of tlie minutest insect, the 
conversion of a soul ; tlie growth of a plant, the rise and fall 
of a kingdom ; the fall of a sparrow, the growth in holiness 
and glory of an Archangel, are all contemplated in the Divine 
Mind, and every needed provision and instrumentality care- 
fully secured. 

Now contemplate, if you can, the Divine Mind, as every- 
where present, as everywhere active, witnessing the successful 
operation of all his plans, the successful fulfilment of all his 
purposes — means accomplishing precisely the end designed 
without a single failure, and tell me if such a contemplation on 
the part of Deity must not yield to the Divine Mind a supreme 
felicity^ 

The Independence of God suggests another source of his 
happiness. 

Man is dependent ; and though much of his happiness 
arise from his dependence, yet true it is that his dependence 
is the source of much misery. He can do nothing of himself. 
He is of yesterday and know^s nothing. What he begins he is 
never certain of finishing ; what he wishes he is never certain 
of obtaining. His breath is in his nostrils — and yet if death 
do not cut short his efforts as soon as begun or before he real- 
ize a desired result, a thousand unforeseen incidents may ren- 
der all his exertions abortive, and consequently he is little else 
than the creature of a painful uncertainty. But no such uncer- 
tainty can mar the happiness of God. He is dependent on no 
accident, circumstance or event, that can frustrate a single pur- 
pose or hinder a single desire. He doeth all his will, and none 
can hinder him, or say, what doest thou ? Omniscient^ all future 



852 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

events and things are present to Lis mind, and all have been 
ordered by his choice ; and infinitely wise, one event can by 
no possibility interfere to hinder another ; and omnipotent, no 
created being — no being in the universe can withstand his will 
or frustrate his purposes. He can will what he pleases, he 
can do what he wills, and, of course, can never be subject to 
the discomfort and reaction of disappointment and failure. 

And we may argue the happiness of God from his Benevo- 
lence, 

God is love. All the attributes of God seem but the differ- 
ent manifestations of his Benevolence. And we know that the 
highest happiness a rational being can enjoy, and perhaps the 
only true happiness he may experience, is from the exercise of 
his benevolent affections. The exercise of malevolent feelings 
cannot be otherwise than misery. True, elevated, rational, 
heavenly happiness, may be defined to be Benevolence, or a 
love to make others happy. 

If, then, God is infinitely benevolent, he must be infinitely 
happy. And that he is infinitely benevolent we have ample 
testimony in all his works of creation and Providence. We 
cannot mistake that every thing, as it came from the hand of 
God, bears marks of the same benevolent design. That sin 
has, as far as possible, perverted every thing to a malevolent 
purpose, is equally true. But this does not obliterate the 
original and benevolent design of the Creator. Look at the 
structure of man ; not a muscle, nerve or joint — not a faculty 
of the mind — not a passion, feeling or affection of the heart, 
which does not, if unperverted, minister directly and eftectually 
to his happiness. Or look, if you please, at the whole system 
of nature, and, notwithstanding the disorder into which sin has 



ADAPTATIOl^S AKD COMPELS ATIOITS. 353 

thrown it — a disorder like that into which a beautiful city is 
thrown when almost overwhelmed by an avalanche of burning 
lava — you will everywhere discover in its arrangements the 
marks of a benevolent Mind. There may be discovered run- 
ning through the whole a design to make all creatures happy. 
What provisions are made for the food and protection of all 
God's creatures — one made to administer to another, and the 
earth and its fittings up made to minister to all. What adap- 
tations are everywhere discoverable — every being adapted to 
its element, its food and its mode of being ! And what a beau- 
ful system of compensations runs through the whole system" of 
nature, so that if the happiness of one be invaded on the one 
side, it is compensated, with usury perhaps, on the other ! Has 
sin inflicted on man diseases, woes and innumerable burdens ? 
Nature is made to furnish reliefs — remedies — antidotes to 
poisons, and a healing balm for every wound. 

What unalloyed satisfaction it may give the Divine Mind 
to contemplate such a system! A healing stream gushes out 
from every rock ; a rose overtops every thorn. Ten thousand 
precious plants force their way through the sterile, stony 
ground, and often cover its deformities. The consciousness of 
being the Author of diffusing so much happiness to his crea- 
tures is infinite happiness in the Author himself. 

^' It is more blessed to give than to receiveJ^ — In uttering 
this saying our Saviour revealed to us the Divine philosophy 
of Benevolence, or, in other words, the most effectual way to 
be happy. Is God the great communicator^ ''giving life and 
breath and all things — filling our hearts with food and glad- 
ness'?" Is he the most benevolent Being in the universe? 
He is, then, the happiest Being. Is he infinitely benevolent ? 



354 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

He is, then, infinitely happy. And not only is the exercise of 
the benevolent affections the source of immeasurable happi- 
ness, but the mere possession of them — the consciousness of 
their existence in the soul, is a continual fountain of happiness, 
a well of water springing up unto eternal life. God, then, 
must be infinitely and eternally happy. 

Another source of the Divine complacency is his integrity^ 
or perfect moral rectitude. Consciousness of moral defection is 
a fruitful source of human misery. The good man weeps in 
secret places over his indwelling sin. He laments his short- 
comings in duty, his rebellions, his sins of word, deed and 
thought. He is feelingly alive to his want of moral rectitude. 
And the wicked man, too, if he reflect, is the subject of regret, 
vexation, and oftentimes of the keenest remorse. If weighed 
in the balance of even a human standard of virtue, he is found 
wanting. But no such thing can mar the happiness of God. 
He can look back on a whole past eternity, and not a stain can 
be discovered on his character ; not an act has he put forth but 
in the strictest integrity ; not a moral blot does he see on the 
face of all his works ; he has never breathed a thought or in- 
dulged a feeling which would not bear the light of eternity, or 
the gaze of ten thousand angels. In all the plannings of his 
wisdom, in all the acts of his benevolence, in all the executions 
of his power, he has never made a misstep ; nothing he would 
undo ; nothing he can regret. 

Eemorse, therefore — the bane of human happiness, the 
poisoner of human joys, the unquenchable fire in the godless 
soul — can, by no possibility, find a place in the Divine Mind. 
And as God can have no regrets, no remorse for the past, so 
he can have no solicitude for the future. 



DIVINE JUSTICE AND MERCY. 355 

Again, we infer the same thing from the Divine Justice, 
Justice is a disposition to do right to all, to do wrong to none, 
to render to all their due. No small share of human misery- 
arises from injustice. The consciousness of inflicting wrong, 
or withholding good where it is due, is as the lash of the 
scorpion, stinging the soul in its innermost vitality. And 
what wretchedness does the doing of injustice inflict on the 
sufferers ? — what heart-burnings, ranklings and misery ! 

What a holy complacency, what unadulterated felicity God 
must enjoy in the possession of such an attribute ; and, if pos- 
sible, how much more in the exercise of it ! Although God has 
been exercising this attribute from all eternity ; been deciding 
on the merits and demerits of his creatures ; rewarding and 
punishing in all varieties of cases, millions without number, 
not a being in all the universe can rise up and say God has 
done him a wrong, has withheld good when due, or inflicted a 
penalty not due. He can challenge every creature in heaven, 
earth and hell, and none can accuse him of a single wrong. 

And Mercy ^ too, is an attribute of the Divine character — 
the disposition in God to bestow good on the miserable, even 
on the ill-deserving. There is not a purer, a higher, a holier 
happiness on earth than that which does good to the miserable, 
and forgives and blesses the undeserving. But all this God 
does constantly and in an infinitely higher sense than it is 
possible for man to do. Heaven is daily filling up with the 
subjects of God's mercy. The song of redeeming love is every 
hour swelling louder and louder ; the ocean of eternal bliss is 
widening and deepening with the accession of every soul that 
mercy brings to heaven. God sees it all, knows it all, and 
recognizes it all as the fruit of his own mercy. 



S56 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

Anotlier moral attribute of God, whicli cannot fail to yield 
a glorious harvest of blessedness to the Divine Mind, is his 
Truth, By this attribute we mean God's perfect veracity — the 
accordance of all his declarations with the reality of things — 
his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, executing his threat- 
enings and accomplishing his predictions. God, who looks 
from eternity and to eternity, cannot discover a single failure 
of all he has said, of all he has promised and engaged to be 
fulfilled. 

The contemplation of such a moral character must be a 
source of infinite felicity. As far as we can comprehend and 
appreciate such a character, the contemplation of it is perfectly 
delightful. It is a moral beauty on which the eye of the mind 
delights to dwell. But to God, who has an eye that can com- 
prehend such a character in all its beauty and loveliness, and a 
heart that can perfectly appreciate it, how infinitely delightful 
must be the contemplation ! 

But we stop not here. The Divine complacency is not con- 
fined to the subjective contemplation of the divine character 
and attributes. The happiness God derives from the contem- 
plation of his luorlcs is none the less worthy of our considera- 
tion. When God had finished the work of creation, he is 
represented as surveying the whole, and pronouncing all to be 
" good." He was well pleased with the workmanship of his 
hands. The angels, the whole heavenly host, who understood 
vastly less of the wisdom and power and beauty displayed in 
all these works than God did, and consequently had vastly less 
reason for their admiration, greatly rejoiced in this new acces- 
sion to the Divine workmanship. " The morning stars sang 
together, and the sons of God shouted for joy." God is very 



GOD VIEWING HIS WOEKS. 357 

frequently represented as taking delight in his works, as re- 
joicing in the works of his hands. And more frequently are 
the works of God made the theme of praise by angels and the 
spirits of just men made perfect. 

They that sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, say : 
'^ Marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty." The con- 
templation of God's works — the admiration of the wisdom, 
power and goodness therein displayed — the exhibition which 
they afford of the character of God, no doubt afford a very 
essential ingredient in future bliss. God has more extensively 
made himself known by his works than by his word. 

The admiration of his works by his creatures, and the high 
strains of adoration which rise therefrom, are no doubt a con- 
tinual source of blessedness to the Divine Mind. 

That God derives a high pleasure from the contemplation 
of his works appears therefore from the fact that all these 
works are represented as praising him: "Praise ye him, sun 
and moon : praise him, all ye stars of light. Praisg him, ye 
heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Let them praise the name of the Lord : for he commanded and 
they were created. He hath also established them forever and 
ever : he hath made a decree which they shall not pass. Praise 
the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps ; fire and 
hail ; snow and vapors ; stormy wind fulfilling his word ; moun- 
tains, and all hills ; fruitful trees, and all cedars ; beasts, and 
all cattle ; creeping things and flying fowl." — Ps. cxlviii. 3-10. 

All nature is represented as vocal with the praises of God. 
Hills, rocks and woods ; all creeping things — the starry 
heavens — all that lives and breathes and is, raise the voice 
of praise. 



358 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

Here is more than an intimation of God's happiness in his 
works. If there be in all nature a foundation for universal 
praise, it is because the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God 
as displayed in these works, merit such a praise, and God as 
the Being to whom these attributes belong, cannot but take 
delight in the manifestations of these attributes. 

As God surveys his works, there is perhaps nothing so 
palpably obvious as the infinite amount of happiness which is 
secured in those works. We sometimes speak of our world as 
a miserable world ; and no doubt it is the most miserable 
world, but one^ in all the Universe. Yet in this rebellious, 
sinful, miserable world of ours, misery is the exception, and 
not the rule. Except in man, who is doomed here to suffer 
the penalty of his apostasy from God, there is comparatively 
very little misery ; and this comes as a consequence of man's 
transgression. '' The creature was made subject to vanity not 
willingly," but because of man's apostasy. There is much 
misery, but there is, despite the curse, much happiness. 
There are some clouds, yet there is more sunshine; some 
storms, yet on that account more fertility and beauty ; some 
poisons, yet more sweets ; some tears, yet more smiles ; some 
sickness, yet more health ; some worlds (we know of but this 
one) have apostatized and drawn down upon themselves the 
malediction of heaven, and turned the sweet waters of life into 
bitterness and stagnation, while millions of other worlds are 
shining in all the fresh beauty of their first creation, ever re- 
galing in the full sunshine of their Creator's face. Sighs, 
groans, tears, have never been known there ; vexations, corrod- 
ing cares and disappointments have never ruffled a single 
breast. Thorns and briars — natural and moral evils, hava 



MORE HAPPINESS THAN MISERY. 359 

found no place there. All is peace and purity ; good will to 
their uncontaminated tenants, and glory to God in the highest. 

As God surveys the vast empire of his creation, ho sees 
but comparatively a little spot which is not pervaded with hap- 
piness. Where one groan reaches his ear and calls down his 
kindly interposing pity, ten thousand anthems of joy ascend 
from as many happy worlds, and swell, as they approach 
the eternal throne, into one grand diapason of praise to Him 
who created them to be happy. And what can give to an in- 
finitely benevolent mind a purer and higher bliss than the 
existence in his creatures of such an amount of happiness '? In 
his benevolent purpose, God devised a scheme of creation with 
the design that happiness should pervade the whole ; and it 
cannot fail to convey delight to the Divine Mind to see his 
plan without a single unpermitted failure realized — to see the 
teeming millions of .unnumbered worlds, rational and irra- 
tional, animate and inanimate, rejoicing in the light of their 
Creator's face. 

A company of wretched captives are passing by. Separat- 
ed from their families, reduced to bondage, destitute and 
miserable, they are destined to a fate more cruel than death. 
A rich and benevolent individual comes forward, ransoms 
them from their bondage, provides them food, apparel and 
habitation ; restores them to their respective families, gives 
them some rich acres to cultivate, and in a few years sees them* 
an industrious, prosperous and happy community. And he 
knows that under God, he has done it all. Will he not sur- 
vey the whole with delight % Will he not love again and 
again to ponder on the happiness which has originated and 
been fostered by his own hand ? And how much more Gcd^ 



360 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

who sees all the happiness in the universe to be originated 
and to be every moment nourished by himself? 

Should it be objected that, if the happiness of God consists 
either in producing or witnessing the happiness of his crea- 
tures, the time must have been when God was not perfectly 
happy ; in answer, I may say that all duration is equally 
present with God. The past and the future are equally before 
his mind as the present ; and all the creatures he has made 
or shall make were present realities to his mind from eternity, 
and equally capable of yielding delight. 

And what again can be a surer index of the happiness of 
God, than that he should be the author of so much happiness 
in his creatures? Would happiness be so distinguishing a 
feature in God's creation if there were not a counterpart 
equally distinguishing in the Divine Mind ? 

Again, the contemplation of his whole works as one grand 
system^ must convey to the mind of the Eternal a still higher 
happiness. The author of some great and noble piece of ma- 
chinery might be highly pleased to witness the successful 
operation of different parts of his workmanship ; but not till 
he should take cognizance of the whole^ as one entire piece, the 
individual parts all working in harmony and producing the 
grand and final result, would he realize the pleasure which 
properly belonged to him. 

This brings me to remark, as the last source of proof which 
I shall present. 

That the contemplation of the final and glorious end of 
all things, must be a never-failing source of blessedness to 
God. This final end is no doubt the glory of God. But this 
end is to be attained through the sanctification, the salvation 



THE FINAL END OF CREATION. 361 

ana eternal beatification of a countless multitude of intelligent 
creatures. 

It is the happiness of the Divine Mind that he looks 
through present clouds to eternal day beyond — that he can 
with a glance trace up a chain of events reaching from the 
morn of creation to the end of time, or from eternity to eter- 
nity, and see the result. Changes, revolutions, convulsions, 
may betide, and seem to be working out a result entirely con- 
trary to the one desired ; yet God sees, and he knows, that 
the desired result will, in due time, follow. He can have no 
solicitude for the result. There can be no failure of the instru- 
mentalities and agencies to bring it about, and no possible in- 
terference of influences to retard or hinder its accomplishment 
at the proper time. 

The grand and final result of all things consists in the 
glory of God through the salvation of his creatures. Conscious 
that he is himself the most excellent of all beings, and that 
all beings are dependent on him for all they are and shall be, 
he well knows that in his glory is bound up the glory and 
happiness of all his creatures. If then God take pleasure in 
the happiness of his creatures, he must first of all take pleasure 
in his own glory. So that when God makes the chief end 
of all things his own glory, he is not actuated by the sordid 
passion which we call selfishness, but by a motive the most be- 
nevolent possible. For by so doing he the most effectually ad- 
vances the happiness of the whole universe. 

That God's making the chief end of all things his own 
glory is not selfishness, but benevolence, appears the more 
evident from the fact that he seeks his own greatest glory in 
the happiness of his creatures. 
16 



362 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

The happiness of all God's creatures, then, is God's happi- 
ness. He is the author of it all — to be glorified in it is the 
grand and final result of all his works of creation and prov- 
idence. 

Contemplate God, then, as having completed the drama of 
Eedemption, and having arrived, too, at moral results as 
glorious in respect to other worlds. With what infinite com- 
placency must he then survey the whole ! With what su- 
preme felicity must he recognize the whole as the result of his 
own wisdom and the fruit of his own goodness ! A great mul- 
titude which no man can number are supremely happy. They 
are rapt and burn in the love of God. Their overflowing 
souls give expression, in eternal praise, to the Divine felicity. 

And they have but just begun to be happy. The infinite 
mind of God stretches down through a whole coming eternity, 
and sees them expanding in happiness as eternity rolls on. 
They are now fixed in eternal blessedness. Sin and sighing 
and sorrow are all done away, all tears are wiped from their 
eyes. They shall know pain and disappointment no more. 
No one can pluck their harps from their hands, nor tear their 
crowns from their heads. They are forever blessed, forever 
happy. And God has done it all. The happiness is his. 
He is over all, and in all, God blessed forever. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

God in all and over all, giving life and breath and all things— Inspired descriptions of 
God— How such views of God should affect us. 

We have ranged through a broad field in search of the un- 
searchable God. We have seen him in every thing ; in the 
heights above and in the deeps below ; in the minutest of his 
works, and in the most magnificent, whirling through inter- 
minable space stupendous worlds, millions of times larger than 
our earth, and with a care not the less careful, guiding the 
minutest atom that tips the wing of the minutest insect. We 
have seen him in the " fire and the hail," in the " snow and 
vapors," and in the " stormy wind fulfilling his word." We 
have taken note of his power, and followed the footsteps of his 
ceaseless love '' in the mountains and all hills, in fruitful trees 
and all cedars ; beasts, and all cattle, creeping things and fly- 
ing fowl." How he rules among the kings and princes of the 
earth ! among judges and people ! How he controls and uses 
as he will all the diversities of human gifts and talents, and all 
the varied conditions of men ! We have seen God in all 
things ; how he 

" Warms in tlie sun, refreshes in the hreeze ; 
Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees ; 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent ; 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; 
Breathes in our souls, informs our mortal part. 
As full, as perfect in a hair as heart." 



364 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

And having traversed the boundless fields of ether, and 
everywhere wondered to behold the grandeur and magnificence 
of the works of the Almighty hand, and then descended 
through every grade of creature workmanship to the most 
insignificant atom either animate or inanimate, we have 
everywhere discovered the same infinite skill and benevolence. 
And we have attempted to retrace our steps, and, returning 
from our wanderings amidst the mazes of nature, to approach 
to nature's God. We then found ourselves in the presence of 
the Great and Holy Being, whose thoughts are infinite, who 
ever rejoices in the workmanship of his own hands, and who is 
the Blessed, the only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords. 

We cannot now more appropriately close this volume 
than by ranging ourselves at a stand-point whence we may 
take a retrospective view of that glorious Being, glimpses of 
whose character have, in the foregoing pages, been made, in a 
great variety of w^ays, to pass before us ; and if, in this retro- 
spect, we shall be led hastily to pass over ground already 
traversed, the reader may not regret it. 

But we would rather here look with the eyes of another, 
and not our own — with the eyes of one inspired — one who 
sang of God, his lips being touched with a coal from the inner 
sanctuary. We will invoke to our aid the sweet singer of 
Israel. The theme which we have undertaken to illustrate 
was a favorite theme of the royal poet. More especially did 
he celebrate the wonder-working hand of God in the creation, 
and the control of the material world. As an example of this 
I might transcribe the whole of the 104th Psalm. I will 
transcribe but a part of it, and ask the reader to reperuse the 
whole : 



THE ROTAL WORSHIPPER. 365 

" Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art 
very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty: who 
coverest thyself with light as with a garment ; who stretchest 
out the heavens like a curtain ; who layeth the beams of his 
chambers in the waters ; who maketh the clouds his chariot ; 
who walketh upon the wings of the wind ; who maketh his; 
angels spirits ; his ministers a flaming fire ; who laid the foun 
dations of the earth that it should not be moved forever." 

As the royal worshipper comes into the audience chamber 
of the King, mark his demeanor there ; hear what he says. 
The threshold crossed, he is awed into humility, melted into 
love, and amazed amidst the glorious magnificence of the eter- 
nal throne. Words cannot give utterance to his emotions — 
language cannot describe what he sees and hears and feels. 
We will endeavor to accompany him as he comes to bow 
down and worship in the Palace of our Great King. Stand- 
ing yet without the portal, adoring, wondering, loving, he 
exclaims, in childlike simplicity : Lord my God^ thou 
art very great ! How great, how glorious, baffled all power of 
language to tell, and the broadest, loftiest flights of imagina- 
tion to conceive. 

Though he could neither himself comprehend nor convey 
to our minds God in his eternal fulness and his indescribable, 
inconceivable infinitude ; yet, by summoning to his use the 
choicest imagery of an earthly mould — by laying hold of those 
things and circumstances, which, in the estimation of mortals, 
are representatives of the highest state of honor and power, 
riches and pleasure, he attempts to convey to our minds some 
proximate idea of the glory and power, the dominion and 
majesty, the riches and goodness of the King of Kings. He 



366 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

first adores him as a mighty monarch, (but what a descrip- 
tion !) clothed in robes of honor and majesty — covered with light 
as with a garment — dwelling in light — or, as light is an emblem 
of knowledge, wisdom, purity and felicity, gloriously arrayed 
in these as in a luminous cloud, inaccessible to mortal eyes by 
reason of its brightness — who only hath immortality^ dwelling 
in the light which no man can approach unto — whom no man 
hath seen, nor can see — enthroned in the midst of all the glo- 
rious attributes of the Godhead. 

This glorious Being, so gorgeously apparelled, is next con- 
templated as seated in his spacious palace or pavilion, which 
is none other than the wide expanse of the heavens, the broad 
concave of the firmament, spangled with ten thousand starry 
gems — worlds and suns adorning the vast canopy of this m.on- 
arch of the skies. " He stretcheth out the heave7is like a cur- 
tain,^'' ''He layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters^ 
The chambers or upper rooms of his mighty tabernacle reach 
above the clouds — their beams are laid in the waters that are 
above the firmament. 

We judge of the greatness of a king by the splendor of his 
equipage and the multitude and character of his retinue. His 
horses and chariots of state, his officers and servants, form a 
criterion by which to judge of the extent of his dominions, the 
riches of his empire and the power of his arms. What, then, 
from the description before us, are we to judge of the power, 
the greatness and majesty of God? ''He maketh the clouds 
his chariot ; he walketh upon the wings of the wind.'''' Again, 
" the Lord rideth on a swift cloud.'''' And again, " He rideth 
on the heaven of heavens.^"* These are figurative expressions 
denoting the greatness and glory of God and the perfect faeil- 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 367 

ity with which he controls all events in this lower world. But 
who are the ministers and attendants — who compose the reti- 
nue of Him who visits every portion of our globe, and super- 
intends all its vast variety of affairs as if he were conveyed 
on the wings of the wind, or who visits worlds innumerable 
as if he rode on the heaven of heavens ? " He maheth his 
angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fireP Or, to trans- 
pose and more accurately to give the sense of the original, 
" who maketh the spirits his messengers, and a flaming fire 
his ministers." Angels, archangels, spirits — intelligences of 
all grades — yea, the winds, the flaming fire, the earthquake 
and the storm, he makes his ministers in the execution of his 
vast and various purposes. They fly, at his bidding, from 
world to world, light on the remotest globe that shines in the 
heavens, and execute his will, and return to bow down, with 
ten thousand times ten thousand, to adore and worship at his 
feet. 

Such did the I^salmist conceive to be the great and. awful 
Being whom he attempted to worship. The more he en- 
deavored to form a conception of Him, the more he must 
have been constrained to cover his face and repeat his first 
exclamation : " Lord my God^ thou art very great ! " 
His attempt is not so much to describe the Holy One, as to 
exhaust all figures, comparisons and hyperboles, to show that 
he is above and beyond all power of description. He 
attempts to approximate towards some just idea of the 
majesty of Heaven by instituting a comparison with the royal 
estate of some mighty earthly potentate. The splendor of 
his wardrobe, the grandeur of his court, the extent and riches 
of his empire, his regal state and vast retinue, and his mighty 



THE PAT.ACE OF THE GREAT KING. 368 

deeds, are all summoned before him ; yet all fall so infinitely 
short of the reality of the Divine Majesty that they are but 
the dimmest representatives, doing little more than to afford 
occasion to show how infinitely above all earthly description 
is the eternal God. 

Do you speak of his throne 1 it is a throne of righteous- 
ness. Of his empire 1 it is boundless, to us infinite — embra- 
cing all dominions and all worlds. Do you ask after his 
crown? it is a crown of glory. Of his apparel? he is 
robed in garments of honor and majesty. Of his attendants ? 
they are angels of every grade — spirits high and holy — mes- 
sengers swifter than the wind, burning with love more in- 
tense than fire — known as cherubim and seraphim, princi- 
palities and powers, kingdoms and dominions. Or do you 
ask after his power ? What a description have we here ! 
" He looTceth on the earth and it trembleth^ he toucheth the hills 
and they smoTce?"^ He calls all things into existence by the 
word of his power. He says, '-'•Let there he light^ and there is 
lightr He speaks, and it is done ; he commands, and all 
stands fast. And do you ask for a further description of his 
glory, his greatness and his power % You have it in language 
more than human in these words : " He bowed the heavens 
and came down ; and darkness was under his feet." " His 
glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 
And his brightness was as the light." Such was his appear- 
ance. Now mark his irresistible and magnificent progress or 
march : " He rode upon a cherub and did fly ; yea, he did fly 
upon the wings of the wind." " He made darkness his secret 
place : his pavilion round about him were dark waters and 
thick clouds of the skies." At the brightness of his presence, 



DISCOMFITUEE OF HIS ENEMIES. 869 

the thick clouds passed away or were dispersed, hailstones 
and fire of coals ; i. e. he wrappeth himself in darkness, yet 
commandeth light to shine out of darkness for his people. 
And what can equal the description given of his dreadful 
power in the discomfiture and overthrow of his enemies 1 
" The Lord thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave 
his voice, hailstones and coals of fire ; yea, he sent out his 
arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and 
discomfited them." " Before him went the pestilence, and 
diseases went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the 
earth ; he beheld, and drove asunder the nations : and the 
everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did 
bow : his ways are everlasting. The mountains saw thee, 
and they trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by : 
the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 
The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation." All 
nature — heaven, earth and sea stand aghast and tremble when 
God, the great and awful God, lifts his hand to take vengeance 
on all that obey not his voice. How fearful, then, to fall into 
the hands of such a God ! He has all power in heaven, earth 
and hell. He is a consuming fire, before whom all trans- 
gressors are as stubble. " I kill and I make alive," saith this 
High and Holy One, " I wound and I heal ; neither is there 
any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand 
to heaven and say, I live forever. If I whet my glittering 
sword and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render 
vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me. 
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword 
shall devour flesh." Surely, " O Lord my God, thou art 
very great^"^ And well might trembling and fear take hold 
16* 



370 THE PALACE OE THE GEEAT KING. 

on the Psalmist when he came into the presence of such a 
Potentate. What humility became him ! what reverence and 
fear ! 

David dared not come into the presence of his God as the 
heedless horse rushes into the battle. The sanctuary was to 
him a most solemn place. He might trifle before an earthly 
monarch — he might contemn or abuse a fellow-mortal, robed 
in earth's richest attire. But he could not trifle in the pres- 
ence of the majesty of Heaven. He would not, for the price 
of his soul, insult and provoke his God by listlessness and 
levity in his presence. 

The Psalmist adds further considerations as illustrative of 
the power, the wisdom and goodness of God, He now looks 
away from his ever adorable character and attributes to the 
MANIFESTATIONS of God discovcrahU in his works. He has 
already contemplated him as a Mighty Monarch, adorned in 
all the insignia of royalty, his palace, his throne, his empire ; 
his crown, his robes, his attendants, as far surpassing all the 
regal decorations and magnificence of an earthly court as 
Heaven surpasses earth, or as infinitude in wealth and honor 
exceeds the poor beggarly elements of the world. And he 
had contemplated him as the avenger of his honor — clad in 
his fierce indignation — going forth in his judgments as a de 
vouring fire — the earth trembles at his presence — the sea is 
thrown into consternation — and trembling takes hold on the 
heavens because he is wroth. But now the pious king casts 
his eye about him and contemplates the immortal and invisi- 
ble Potentate as he is set forth in his works. The creation of 
this globe — both land and water — the stocking the earth and 
the sea, respectively, with a superabundance of living crea- 



NATURE INSPIRING DEVOTION. 371 

tures — the provision which is made for their subsistence both 
as to food and drink — and the arrangement he has made; by 
means of day and night, for the labor, refreshment and protec- 
tion of man, are some of the topics which inspire the devotion 
and raise heavenward the pious soul of the royal worshipper. 
He read not the Book of Revelation only, by which to raise 
in his heart the fire of devotion, but he opened wide before 
him the volume of nature, from which he derived the same 
great truth, caught the same seraphic feelings, and felt urged 
home upon him the same sacred duties. Should we not in 
this imitate him ? Should not our souls take fire at the altar 
of nature's God when we survey the wonderful design and 
the exquisite as well as sublime workmanship of the Divine 
architect ? Were we to give to this subject the pious contem- 
plation which it deserves, should we not find it an infinitely 
richer source of religious pleasure and instruction than we 
now do — and should we not sympathize with the Psalmist in 
the exclamation, " When I consider the heavens, the work of 
thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast made, 
what is man that thou art mindful of him "? " Nothing, aside 
from a direct revelation, can give us such clear, elevated and 
enlarged views of the Divine Majesty, as a contemplation of 
nature's works. 

David proceeds to infuse into his mind the fire of devo- 
tion by further recounting the attributes and excellencies of 
his God as displayed in his works. " Who," says he, " laid 
the foundation of the earth, that it should not be removed for- 
ever. Thou coveredst^it with the deep as with a garment : 
the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they 
fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They 



372 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

go up by the mountains ; tliey go down by the valleys unto 
the place which thou hast founded for them." Thus passed 
through the mind of the king and the prophet, as he bowed 
down and worshipped, the stupendous work of creation — God 
calling all things into being by a mere word — suspending this 
mighty globe in mid-space : borne up by its own weight, yet 
as immovably fixed in its orbit as if it were founded on an 
everlasting rock. First he sees the earth "without form, 
and void " — of a paste-like consistence — the water and the dry 
land not yet being separated. It is covered with the deep even 
to the tops of the mountains — like a sightless lump of clay, 
without prominence or valley, river or sea, forest or field. 
But on the third day the command is given — the " rebuke " is 
uttered ; ^''Let the waters under the heaven he gathered into one 
place and let the dry land appear. And the waters " fled," 
and at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away, and formed 
the mighty deep. And, as some read the eighth verse, " the 
mountains ascend, and the valleys descend to the place thou 
hast established for them." The earth in the great transfor- 
mation which separated the solid and fluid parts of the globe, 
is thrown into hill and vale, mountain and deep ravine. And 
again, its solid parts are left in different degrees of density, as 
the metal, the rock, the sand, the mellow loom, suited to the 
wants of its future tenants. And he set bounds to the sea, 
which it might not pass and turn again to cover the earth. 
But for the power of his arm who said, " Hitherto shalt thou 
come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be 
stayed," the sea would " turn again " to cover the earth as it 
did at the beginning. What a proof this of our dependence on 
the almighty arm. If he hold not the raging billows within 



THE DIVINE PUEPOSES IN NATUEE. 3 73 

their assigned limits, they would break forth and in their irre- 
sistless course, overwhelm every living thing. What a theme 
do we find here for praise and thanksgiving, for adoration and 
love to the great Supreme. How good to stir up our minds 
by a survey of His wonderful works. While we muse upon 
these the fire of devotion will burn. 

Nor does the Psalmist in his pious contemplations stop 
here. He follows up the footsteps of the great architect — he 
looks into the bowels of the mighty machine, and sees by 
whom, and for whom, and to what end it is made. And how 
does his admiration rise, how his pious emotions burst forth 
when he contemplates the divine purposes in the production 
of this world. He sees it not merely a mighty hall hung out 
in the heavens to be numbered among the gems of night, but a 
vast habitation fitted up for the abode of a great variety of 
living creatures. 

The earth, the waters, the air, teem with life. The unin- 
formed have no just conception of the variety and the multi- 
tude of living creatures. The productiveness of many of the 
lower grades of animals is almost beyond belief But these 
are not the facts which at this time engage the devotional feel- 
ings of the Psalmist; it is rather to the wise and benevo- 
lent arrangements by which God has provided for the wants 
and conveniences of his great family of living beings. And 
first, the provision made to supply animals of every grade and 
clime, with fresh water — an article indispensable to the exist- 
ence of every living thing. The grand reservoir of water is 
salt — not capable of sustaining life, yet it sends forth its sweet 
streams into every nook and corner of the dry land. Not an 
acre — not a yard, but yields, if not on its surface, by descend- 



374 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

ing a little, a supply of fresh water. The Arab that roves on 
his native sands, the Laplander that shivers in his icy hut, 
the lion that prowls in the forest of Africa, and the inhabi- 
tants of the wilds and the tenants of the rocks, all receive 
their supply of this indispensable' beverage. And this, with- 
out their having the trouble to go to the grand reservoir. It 
is brought to their habitation without their pains or expense. 
The great architect has perforated this ball in every conceiva- 
ble direction, through which apertures or water-courses, he 
sends the needed fluid. This is what so excited the pious 
admiration of the Psalmist : " He sendeth the springs into 
the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to 
every beast of the field : the wild asses quench their thirst. 
By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation." 
This is one way by which every portion of the earth is made 
to yield a supply of water to every living thing. The water 
of the ocean is filtered through the earth, purified of its salt 
ness and corruption, and brought to the surface of the earth 
for the use of man and brute. And another way is, " He 
watereth the hills from his chambers : the earth is satisfied 
with the fruit of thy works." The waters of the oce&n and of 
the rivers ascend into the atmosphere in the form of vapor, 
form clouds over our heads, called here " chambers " of God, 
and there condensing in a cooler region, return on the earth 
in the shape of rain — fertilize the ground, afford drink to ani- 
mals, penetrate the earth, form springs, rills, streamlets, 
rivers, which return the waters into the mother fountain. 

Nor is this all : God provides food for all. This afforded 
the pious King an additional topic of meditation when he came 
to worship. " He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle 



GOD'S CARE FOR ANIMALS. 3 '75 

and herb (all kinds of vegetable food) for the service of man." 
" He bringeth forth food out of the earth : and wine that 
maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to 
shine, and bread which strengtheneth his heart." "Wine" 
and " oil " here doubtless represent the respective fruits of the 
vineyard and the olive-yard — wine not the fermented juice of 
the grape, but the grape itself; or if the juice, in a jelly state, 
to be used for food, or diluted in water for a beverage. 

And not only does God provide /oo6^ for his creatures, but 
shelter and habitation. " The trees of the Lord " are for the 
birds, where they may " make their nests." " As for the stork, 
the fir-trees are her house." " The high hills are a refuge for 
the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies." Rocks, caves, 
dens, and deep ravines are the respective habitations which 
God has provided for different tribes of animals. 

Again the benevolence and wisdom discovered in the vicis- 
situdes of day and night, raise the thoughts of the contempla- 
tive mind to the beneficent author. " Thou makest darkness, 
and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep 
forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their 
meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves 
together and lay them down in their dens." Then " man 
gaeth forth to his work." How wise and benevolent such an 
arrangement ! God draws his thick curtains around us ; all is 
hushed in silence and we repose. And now God opens the doors 
of their habitations and sends them forth to forage the tenants 
of the rock, the mountain and the forest. Eoaring after their 
prey they seeh their meat from God, How entirely adapted 
are these divine arrangements to the constitutions, the habits 
and the wants of the various grades of living things. 



S76 THE PAJLACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

But what impressions ought such contemplations to pro* 
duce on the mind — what influence to exercise on the heart. 
The survey filled the heart of the Psalmist with admiration — 
with love, praise and unfeigned devotion. " The earth," ex- 
claims he, " is full of thy riches." So great, so good, so 
glorious in power and wisdom did God appear in this survey 
of his material workmanship that his full heart found utter- 
ance in expressions like these : " I will sing unto the Lord as 
long as I live : I will sing praise to my God while I have my 
being : my meditations of him shall be sweet : I will be glad 
in the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Praise ye the 
Lord." 

He would he glad in the Lord, He would praise and 
magnify his God and worship with gratitude and thanksgiving. 

He had seemed to stand by the great architect and see 
him call out of nothing the huge and formless lump of this 
globe. Dreary and waste it assumed form and beauty — the 
waters collect in their vast reservoirs, and the dry land ap- 
pears. Hills and dales, rivers and lakes, mountains and dash- 
ing cascades diversify its face. Every minute portion is 
watered by springs and streamlets. A soil is formed — vege- 
tation springs up — not only to meet the demands of necessity, 
but to supply a thousand luxuries. Nothing was made in vain 
— nothing not suited to its purpose. 

Next the Psalmist casts his eye over the sea and derives 
thence other reasons why he should rejoice and be glad in the 
Lord : " This great and wide sea, wherein are things creep- 
ing innumerable, both small and great beasts : there go the 
ships : there is that leviathan whom thou hast made to play 
therein." David discovers reasons for gratitude in the exisU 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEA. 377 

ence and uses of the ocean. The magnitude of the ocean — it 
covering more than two thirds of the earth's surface — the 
power displayed, especially when this mighty expanse of 
waters is lashed into a rage — the sublimity of the ocean, have 
ever afforded themes calculated to inspire the reflecting and 
pious mind with reverence and adoration. But the points on 
which the mind of the Psalmist most readily fixed as subjects 
suited to inspire his soul with an idea of the divine goodness, 
were the replenishing the sea with such an innumerable multi- 
tude of living creatures, and the making it a highway for com- 
munication among the nations of the earth. " Wherein are 
creeping things innumerable," and^ " there go the ships." 
The natural history of the ocean is as yet but very imperfectly 
understood, yet understood enough greatly to excite wonder 
and admiration at the variety and immensity of the inhabi- 
tants of the deep. The ocean as profusely teems with life as 
the land ; and life is there as endlessly diversified, and pre- 
sents doubtless a longer chain of « gradations from the mi- 
nutest to the mightiest. " There is that great leviathan, whom 
thou hast made to play therein " — the whale, the most formi- 
dable monster of the deep, that sports in the great play-ground 
of the vast expanse of waters. 

But a contemplation of God's works excites our gratitude 
and draws out our love chiefly as we discover the uses of 
them. The stocking the sea with such an abundance and va- 
riety of animals, is for use as well as to please with a display 
of goodness and wisdom. A large portion of the population 
of the globe are already fled from the ocean ; and doubtless, 
when in the days of her millenial glory the population of the 
earth shall be vastly multiplied, a new storehouse of food will 



378 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

be found to have been kept in reserve for a supply of a pop- 
ulation more numerous than we can now well conceive. 

But David seems to have got a clearer conception of the 
utility of the ocean in another respect: it was navigable: 
" There go the ships." The far reaching mind of the royal 
prophet and poet might have enjoyed in vision something of 
the present condition of the world in respect to neighborhood 
and social and commercial relations. In a barbarous condi- 
tion of the world there could have been no advantages — yea, 
there would have been many disadvantages, had the nations 
of the earth been brought into close neighborhood. They 
would have naturally corrupted one another. Their proxim- 
ity would have been the occasion " of endless wars and of the 
most devastating ruin." While nations remain idolatrous, 
debased, depraved, it matters not how effectually separated 
they are. While the world was in such a condition, Provi- 
dence effectually kept them apart by means of broad and 
trackless oceans ; and thus the maddening passions of men 
were circumscribed within comparatively narrow limits. But 
when the day approached that God would enlighten and chris- 
tianize the world, these barriers were overstepped. These 
mighty oceans became a highway — commerce, with the thou- 
sand facilities it affords, for the increase of knowledge and re- 
ligion, became an efficient instrument by which to convert the 
world to God. Thus God has made the ocean, which once 
seemed but the sporting field of " leviathan," the great chan- 
nel of communication between the different and distant por- 
tions of the world. " There go the ships^ has sent a thrill of 
joy and gratitude into many a christian's soul, as he has seen 
them bear away the messengers of peace and pardon, freighted 



THE CARE OF GOD FOR HIS CREATURES. 379 

with the word of eternal life to a perishing world : and " here 
come the ships," has as often filled with delight the half-enlight- 
ened and waiting heathen who have stood on their shores to 
welcome the ambassadors of the cross to their benighted lands. 

The Psalmist found it pleasant to meditate on these things. 
He rejoiced and was glad in the Lord who doeth wonders — 
who overrules earth and ocean so as to perfect his own praise. 
And so should we if we were wont to see God in all things. 
" His way is in the sea ; his path in the great waters, and his 
footsteps are unknown." 

But I dwell too long on a single topic. The mind of the 
royal saint next finds resources of spiritual enjoyment. 

In the plentiful provision and the tender and remitting care 
of God for all his creatures : " These wait all upon thee : that 
thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou 
givest them they gather : Thou openest thy hand, they are 
filled with good." The abundant supply which God provides 
for every species of animal, however inert or insignificant, or 
wherever found, whether in the depth of the ocean, or deep 
buried in the earth, or fast encased in the solid rock ; the 
instinct of all the various tribes of irrational creatures to search 
out the particular kind of food which has been provided for 
their sustenance, and refuse what is hurtful ; the efforts they 
make to gather what is provided for them, and the content- 
ment with which they accept their allotted supplies, cannot 
fail to excite our admiration of the goodness and wisdom of 
God in his providential care over his creatures. " My medi- 
tation of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the Lord." 

Hence the Psalmist takes notice, as another topic of pleas- 
ing interest, of the dependence of all creatures on God and of 



380 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

his do7ninion over them all : " Thou hidest thy face, they are 
troubled : thou takest away their breath, they die and return 
to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created : 
and thou renewest the face of the earth." The meanest insect 
is as dependent on God for natural life as the saint is for spir- 
itual life. In another place David says of himself : " Thou 
didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." God gives natural 
life to all his creatures, sustains it, and takes it away at his 
pleasure. There is not a creeping thing so insignificant as not 
to be the object of his care — not a sparrow falls to the ground 
without his notice. Why then should we ever distrust ? In 
a day, and perhaps (in the case of some tribes of insects,) in 
an hour after their creation, a whole generation is cut off and 
renewed by another. This is here all attributed to divine 
power : " Thou takest away their breath, they die '' — " thou 
sendest forth thy spirit, they are created " — another genera- 
tion appears. 

What an idea does this give us of God ! Nothing is too 
minute — nothing too insignificant, to put it beyond the care 
and government of God. " His tender mercies are over all 
the works of his hands." Nothing escapes his notice — noth- 
ing which is not subject to his care and made subservient to 
his government. How great must that Being be who can 
make and superintend and rule over so vast a universe of 
beings — to give breath to the minutest insect that crecj^s — to 
provide food for all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air 
and the fishes of the sea — to take away their breath when they 
die, and to renew by his Spirit, every successive generation. 
And if God so clothe the fields and care for the birds of the 
air, how much more shall he take care of you ! O ye of little 
faith ! 



PEACTICAL EEFLECTIOKS. S§1 

But the Psalmist will not dismiss these pleasing medita- 
tions without practical reflections, which expand his soul, and 
raise his thoughts into the regions of high devotions. And 
such contemplations, if rightly indulged in, would profit us in 
like manner. Let us therefore endeavor to trace the work- 
ings of David's pious soul, that we may participate in the 
practical influence which contemplations like the above had 
on him. His mind is brought to certain delightful conclu- 
sions ; the first is. 

That " the glory of the Lord shall endure forever P 

Look up, O my soul, to Him who is the author, the fin- 
isher and preserver of all His creatures. How great and 
glorious He must be ! And this glory shall endure forever. 
It shall endure throughout all time in the works of creation 
and providence, and throughout all eternity in the adoration 
and praises of angels and saints. He is the Sovereign God, 
the Universal King, the only Potentate, and none can take the 
glory ff-om him. The pious mind sees a foundation in the 
works of creation and ^providence for eternal praise to God. 
But if here, as New Testament saints, we bring into the ac- 
count the element of redeeming love — the works of the new 
creation, we discover a still higher ground on which to predi- 
cate the everlasting glory of the Lord. 

Another conclusion to which the Psalmist comes, is, that 
it is a fearful thing to incense such a God, or in any way to 
resist his will : " He looketh on the earth and it trembleth ; 
He toucheth the hills and they smoke." How fearful, how 
vain a thing for puny men to set such power at defiance. 
All the springs of nature — all the resources of heaven, earth 
and hell are at his command, and the mightiest human power 



382 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

is less than the chaff before the wind in his sight. Fear not 
them that kill the body, and after that have nothing more that 
they can do. «Bnt I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : 
fear Him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast in 
hell ; yea, I say nnto you, fear Him. Next 

We have the conclusion of the Psalmist as to how he will 
demean himself in view of such a God. " I will sing unto the 
Lord," says he, " as long as I live : I will sing praise unto the 
Lord, while I have a being. My meditation of him shall be 
sweet : I will be glad in the Lord." He would think much 
on God — he would praise his works and his ways. Such 
meditations he found sweet. It was delightful to turn off 
from the melancholy contemplation of his own weakness and 
corruption, to think on the infinite purity and excellence of 
God — delightful to seek relief from the moral wastes and cor- 
ruptions of humanity, in the eternal excellency of the God- 
head ; and here he discovered reasons for continual praise. 
While he lived in the flesh he would praise God ; yea, as long 
as he should have a being — while immortality endures, his 
spirit should never cease to sing praises to Jehovah. And 
have we not the same reasons to rejoice in the Lord — to serve 
and love the great I AM — the same motives to light up our 
souls and to give our minds in holy zeal for the honor of such 
a God ? All nature rebukes our apathy. Every thing that 
God has made urges us on to fidelity and zeal and holy love. 
While we have a being, let us honor him who has so glorious- 
ly honored himself in all his works. 

But what says the glowing love of our saint, of those who 
will not love and praise and honor such a God ? While his 
own soul burns with holy jealousy, and is wrapt in holy love 



DESTRUCTION OF GOD'S ENEMIES. 383 

for such a God, what does he see to be the righteous doom of 
all such as will not yield a willing homage to so glorious a 
Being, and join in the general chorus of all nature in ascribing 
praise and honor to him ? " Let the sinners be consumed out 
of the earth, and let the wicked be no more." If with such 
reasons to move them — if with such motives to draw out their 
souls to God, they will not love and honor God — if they will 
be dumb, while all nature is vocal with the praises of God — 
aliens and rebels are more irrational than the brute creation. 
Why, it is not fit that they should have a place on God's foot- 
stool — it is meet that they should be consumed out of the 
earth and be no more. Why should they live on God's bounty ; 
why be upheld by his goodness, only to raise rebellion in his 
empire and to produce discord in the general symphony of 
all his loyal subjects '^ Heaven responds, let them perish. 

Finally, it is a matter of holy rejoicing when God triumphs, 
and his enemies are destroyed : " Bless thou the Lord, O my 
soul. Praise ye the Lord." " And all the angels that stand 
about the throne, and the elders, and the four beasts, fall be- 
fore the throne on their faces and worship God, saying. Amen. 
Blessing, and glory, and widsom, and thanksgiving, and honor, 
and might be unto our God for ever and ever, Amen." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Conclusion : The Claims of Natural Eeligion ; the Origin of false Eeligions ; their 
Philosophy and History ; Seasons for one common universal Eeligion, and that 
Christianity. 

And may I not now, before taking a final leave of the 
reader, ask him to bow down in the August Temple we have 
been contemplating and worship the great and glorious Being 
who has stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of 
earth, and gives life and breath and all things. The claims of 
IsTatueal Eeligion seem here to force themselves upon us with 
renewed earnestness. The original religion of man we may 
claim to have been a Natural Eeligion. It was the worship 
of the God of Eden, and of the beautiful world of which Eden 
was the most beautiful representative. Then they worshipped 
the God of the stars ; heard him in the winds, the thunder and 
the storm. Every plant that grew, every animal, insect, bird 
or fish that sported in all the beauty and luxuriance of primeval 
life, bespoke the hand that made them and the fatherly care 
that watched over them and fed them. Hills, plains, rivers, 
trees, hymned forth the praises of their great Original. The 
clouds were his chariot from which he dispensed the rich 
treasures of the skies. The morning stars sang his praise, 
and the evening shades responded in anthems of thanksgiving 



CLAIMS OF NATURAL RELIGIOIN-. 385 

and joy. All nature bespoke the goodness, wisdom and pow- 
er of a present Deity. 

Wliichever way the favored progenitors of our race turned 
their eyes, they discovered God in all things, and God over 
all. They had no written oracles : they needed none. The 
living oracles were inscribed on every lineament of God's 
universal workmanship. The stupendous Temple in which 
they stood — its walls, its foundations, its vast concave — every 
particle, or contrivance for use or ornament, prompted their 
willing hearts to adoration and praise. Every breeze that 
blew, every flower that opened and shed forth its fragrance — 
the sunshine and the shade — heat and cold — day and night, 
uttered their persuasive voice, inviting men to bow down and 
worship the universal Parent. 

Some one has spoken of God as " the greatest of workers," 
the " chief of artificers." He locks not up his wisdom in mere 
abstractions, but rather embodies it in tangible objects, and in 
this way makes manifest his intelligence, his ingenuity and all 
his vast mental resources. " This world is but one of his 
workshops, and the universe but a collection of his inventions." 
His works everywhere proclaim his preference of the material 
and useful to the merely imaginative. 

No class of men have reasons for profounder and more 
reverential worship than mechanics, especially those of the 
class who are inventors, discoverers, or practical and pious 
philosophers. As they range amidst the wonderful realities of 
the universe, replete as it is with design, and redolent in its 
minutest arrangement with wisdom and goodness infinite, the 
greatest wonder of all to such a one is the Eternal Mind him- 
self, from whose conception it rose, and whose prolific fiat gave 
17 



386 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

birth to it, in all its vastness and variety. '' And instead of 
the temple of science having been reared, it is more proper to 
say that the temple of nature has been evolved. The archetype 
of science is the universe, and it is in the disclosure of its 
successive parts, that science advances from step to step — not 
properly raising any new architecture of its own, but rather 
unveiling by degrees an architecture that is old as the creation. 
The laborers in philosophy create nothing, but only bring out 
into exhibition that which was before created." 

The more profound then the researches of our intelligent, 
philosophical mechanic, the more ingenious his workmanship, 
or sublime and useful his discoveries and inventions, the more 
he finds himself imitating and reaching after God, and the 
profounder and more reverential are his thoughts of God, and 
the more intelligent and humble his worship. Every new 
discovery or invention, every advance in ingenuity or skill, 
every new law of nature he may explain and appropriate, 
every new substance he may discover, is but a further exposi- 
tion of the powers and skill of the Great Architect, and a fur- 
ther acquaintance with the exhaustless storehouse of the Great 
Proprietor. His advancement is simply a more complete 
development of his own original mental powers, and a more 
profound acquaintance with the objects of his researches. 
Nothing new has been evolved. And so he may go on to all 
eternity- Every step does but reveal himself and reveal his 
God ; himself as the embryo of unlimited capabilities of re- 
search and investigation ; and God as the Great Author and 
Proprietor of all things. 

Where, if not in such a position, does a man discover 
reasons, motives, incentives for the adoration and praise of his 



WHY A REVEALED RELIGION. BST 

God? Certainly nothing is more reasonable, nothing more 
congenial to the right mind than what is denominated Natural 
Keligion. 

Nor need we by any means confine our remarks to the 
class in question. Other classes of men — all classes, may, 
each in its own department of pursuit and observation, discover 
the same reasons and incentives to bow down in the great 
Temple and worship the King. They who cultivate the soil, 
and whose garners groan beneath the bounties of the liberal 
Hand ; they who delve deep into the bowels of the earth, and 
bring up every useful and precious mineral and metal, and 
wonder at the boundless treasures which lie hid in the deep 
caverns of the earth ; and " they that go down to the sea in 
ships, that do business in great waters ; these see the w^orks 
of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." How are they 
called on to " praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men." 

But for the apostasy Kevealed Keligion had had no place 
in the Theology of man. Inscribed on the broad and open 
volume of nature, patent as the sun in the firmament, are all 
the laws, all the promises, all the guidance unfallen man need- 
ed. Sin created the necessity of a Eevelation. The whole is 
a testimony concerning Jesus the Mediator — the promise, the 
prophecy ; the advent ; the works, the sufi'erings and death of 
the Deliverer ; the means and agencies of salvation, and the 
glorious realizations of a saving faith in the atoning blood. 
The voice of God as he spake in the flower, the breeze and 
the dew-drop ; in the sunshine, the rain, and the health-bear- 
ing air ; as he spake in the ten thousand manifestations of his 
goodness, had been hushed by the tumults of sin, and the 



388 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT EXN'G. 

benignant face of Heaven was obscured by a cloud. It was 
needful that the voice of Mercv should now speak and pro- 
claim peace and pardon to the erring. Such is the revelation, 
and such the nature of that life and immortality brought to 
light through our revealed Eeligion. 

And we need only recur to what has been said of the adap- 
tations of all physical objects and organizations, to the mental 
progress and the moral imj^rovement of man, and we shall see 
reasons, urging home upon us again the obligations of Xatural 
Eeligion. 

But we would present the thought in another form. The 
view we have taken in the foregoing pages of God and 
his works, and of man and his obligations and duties, very 
natm^ally conducts us back to the origin of Religions^ and 
conveys some just notions of their PhUosojyhj and their 
m story. 

There is much of profound interest in the origin, the his- 
tory, and the philosophy of False Eeligions. Constituting, as 
they do, the most subtile combination of all the engines of 
mischief which the great adversary wields, there is much in 
them when contemplated as perversions and coimterfeits, both 
to admire and lament. TTe meet in false relisrions not so much 
absolute falsehood as truth perverted and counterfeited, to the 
peril of man's best interests in this life, and Ms eternal undoing 
in the life to come. 

False religions have a common origin, and more in common 
than is generally allowed. Based on i:>raetical atheism^ it is 
not easy to determine which recognizes the least of God. 
Neither Paganism, Popery, nor Mohammedanism questions the 
abstract being of God. Such a monstrosity falls only within 



CHARAarER OF FALSE RELIGIONS. 389 

tlie dark domains of Atheism. Eeason and conscience never 
said, " There is no God." This is the language of the heart. 
God has stamped his image on all his works. The heavens 
declare the being and agency of God — the succession of day 
and night proclaim it — everything shadows forth an all-per- 
vading Deity. 

False religions have formed a crafty compromise between 
the conflicting elements of man. They yield to Eeason, who 
hiows there is a God, and to Conscience, who feels it, the 
abstract fact of the Divine existence, but grant to the heart, 
which has no complacency in the character of the God of 
Eeason and Conscience, the prerogative of clothing this 
Being with attributes congenial with its own corrupt nature. 
Hence the invention of other gods, and the assigning to the 
true God a fictitious character ; and hence the fabrication of 
corresponding systems of religion. Yet, in the compromise, 
the heart, de facto, has the advantage. For, while it theoreti- 
cally acknowledges the being of one Supreme God, by adding 
at the same time a multitude of lesser deities to which it pays 
its supreme homage, it practically loses sight of both the being 
and authority of the true God. 

Here is the dark triumph of sin. It has placed a black 
and impenetrable cloud between the effulgence of the Eternal 
Throne and this lower world. It has covered the earth with 
darkness — done its utmost to shut out God from the world, 
and to usurp his dominion over this part of his empire. It has 
changed the incorruptible God into an image made like to 
corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creep- 
ing things. 

In order to take a just view of the great systems of False 



390 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

Eeligions which have obtained in the world, it will be neces- 
sary to premise the following things : 

1. God reveals himself to the world as the world can hear 
it, or is prepared to receive it. And we must, of consequence, 
look for something corresponding to this in the various systems 
of Keligion which have prevailed in different ages of the world 
and in different countries. And we may add that the same 
revelation becomes a source of more or less light, according to 
the condition of the people it enlightens. In a given amount 
of sunshine, the half-blind man sees but little compared with 
the man of clear and open vision ; and they who are enveloped 
in fog, little, compared with those who bask in the noonday sun. 
Every new acquisition of knowledge, every well-directed men- 
tal improvement, every advancement in society, casts new 
light upon — or rather educes new light from, the sacred page ; 
and so we may say of the cultivation of every Christian 
virtue and the cherishing of every right affection. The same 
truth as contemplated from different points, for different pur- 
poses, with different feelings and affections, with a clearer 
vision, and at a greater or less distance, appears in new beau- 
ties and relations, and assumes new importance. 

It will, therefore, correct our views and moderate our cen- 
sures, when contemplating what are denominated False Eelig- 
ions, if we take good heed as we pass, to our chronology, to* 
our geography, physical, political and moral, and to the entire 
condition of the people as to knowledge, mental improvement 
and civilization. A religion which is essentially false in one 
age or condition of the world, might have been essentially 
true in another age or condition. For an illustration of this 
we need go no further back than Judaism. 



CONDITION OF MAN PROGRESSIVE. 391 

2. Another point to be borne in mind is, the mental and 
moral im'provement of our race* The condition of the human 
race is progressive. Partial and local retrogressions have at 
times, and for considerable portions of time, occurred, yet 
these should be regarded rather as the temporary results of the 
ebullitions, the confusions, and apparent dissolutions which 
usually precede the introduction and establishment of a new 
and better order of things, than as real retrogressions. It is 
the " shaking " of those things which shall be " removed." To 
us who reckon time by months and years, centuries appear a 
\oT\g preparatory season. But He who inhabits eternity and 
plans for infinite duration, feels no such restraints. With him 
a thousand years are as one day. 

Could we stand in the council chamber of heaven and with 
the eye of Omniscience survey, in the field of our vision, the 
whole of the Divine procedure towards our world, we should 
see a steady, onward, irresistible march of Providence, execut- 
ing the Divine purposes and at every step approaching the goal 
of a final and glorious consummation. But standing, as we 
do, at an infinite remove from the Imperial centre, and amidst 
all the darkness, disorders, and perversions of sin, where so 
much is to be imdiOnQ before God's peculiar work on earth can 
be done — where there must be so much pulling down of both 
superstructure and foundation, before the true Temple can be 
reared and completed, preparatory work often appears to us 
not the work of progress, but of retrogression. 

The correct view we believe is : That the energies of Prov- 
idence are engaged to erect a perfect building — to elaborate 
and complete a perfect system. But as he will do this through 
the medium of human sagacity and toil, all possible systems^ 



392 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

we had almost said, are permitted to exist while the great 
Building — the true System, is in progress, that an endless 
variety of facts may be elicited, experiments tried and results 
arrived at, from which, as from a profuse mass and medley, 
human wisdom may choose the good and eschew the bad, and 
under the eye of the great Architect, produce the perfect Tem- 
ple. Hence the many strange systems, developments and fan- 
tasies, which have been permitted, not only in religion, but in 
politics, ethics, etc. They are the materials from which to se- 
lect. The middle ages were peculiarly prolific in these, and 
as peculiarly preparatory to the advanced state of the world 
which followed. This advanced state was a result — a com- 
pound — a fabrication from pre-existing materials, all thrown 
into the crucible together, fused — the dross being removed — 
and run in a new mould. 

3. It comports with the Divine plan, that sin should have 
its perfect worlc. Earth is a usurped province — Satan is the 
god of this world ! And the history of his reign is written 
with a pen of iron, and shall be read in heavenly places, an 
indelible lesson throughout the interminable duration of eter- 
nity ; presenting an awfully edifying contrast of the misery of 
sin and the beauty of holiness. 

The world is a vast machine, in every part made right, and 
if managed right, could produce nothing but holiness and hap- 
piness. Yet under the administration of his Satanic majesty, 
so completely perverted is every thing that the world is as no- 
torious for violence and corruption, as, under a right regimen, 
it would be for peace and purity. In allowing Satan to dab- 
ble, as he is always disposed to, in the religious affairs of the 
world, in politics, in the social and domestic economy of men, 



GENERAL UNITY OF RELIGIONS. 393 

in their science and literature, and in yielding him the vast 
resources of the world, God has furnished all his intelligent 
creatures a durable and melancholy specimen of what sort of 
use sin makes of things and creatures originally and intrinsic- 
ally good. And when this miserable experiment shall have 
been sufficiently tried, and its results made sufficiently mani- 
fest, the Great King, the rightful Sovereign, shall put down the 
usurper, and exhibit on the same field the diametrically oppo- 
site, the infinite beneficent and glorious results of His reign. 

The extravagances, superstitions and cruelties of False Ee- 
ligions — or, as Carlyle would have it, " their bewildering, inex- 
tricable jungle of delusions, confusions, falsehoods and absurdi- 
ties," stand before us as so many melancholy perversions of the 
Truth — the " many inventions " of sin — ^not original errors but 
corruptions and perversions. 

The position we shall attempt to maintain in this chapter 
is, that Keligion, philosophically regarded, is one grand, con- 
secutive, progressive system from its germ in the family of the 
first Adam to its glorious consummation in the family of the 
second Adam : and that corresponding with this there has run 
a parallel series of counterfeits, imitating the genuine in form 
and lettering^ yet, intrinsically, possessing little or nothing in 
common. 

Satan is a bold and accurate imitator, not (from policy 
only) an inventor^ in the things of religion. He too well 
knows the force of man's religious instinct, and too well under- 
stands that thqre is a spirit in man which " witnesses " with 
the Spirit of God, approving as heaven-born the Eeligion of 
God's revealing, whether it be shadowed forth but obscurely, 
or revealed clearly, to expect to palm on the world a sheer 
17* 



394 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

fabrication of his own. He pays to Divine wisdom the forced 
homage of clothing his falsehoods in the costume of Truth — in 
the panoply of heaven. 

In taking a brief survey of the successive and progressive 
developments of true Eeligion we shall be able to trace a series 
of corresponding counterfeits, by which the Devil has contrived 
to blind the eyes and delude the souls of the tribes and kin- 
dreds of the earth in the different ages of the world. Through- 
out the whole he has not failed to keep pace with the march 
of providential development, changing and modifying, adding 
and subtracting as the world advanced, and as, one after 
another, opened the successive scenes in the great Drama of 
Eedemption. 

We date the history of the true Eeligion in the family of 
Adam. Immediately on the fall, a remedy for the great moral 
disease of man was revealed, and the church of God instituted. 
And from this point radiated the first rays of light over a dark 
w^orld. This light increased and spread through a succession 
of holy men composing the Church, from Adam to Noah. The 
posterity of Seth transmitted the blessing through many gen- 
erations and doubtless among many tribes of the newly peopled 
earth. In the days of Enos there was a remarkable extension 
of the Church, and Enoch was a city set on a hill which could 
not be hid. There must have been at least, a very general 
knowledge of the true God, and of the way in which he ought 
to be worshipped among the nations who lived before the flood. 
Nor is it certain that men had yet fallen into Idolatry, or that 
any great systems of religious error had yet been consolidated. 
Wickedness there was, and violence and corruption, which 
cried to heaven for vengeance, yet perhaps not yet organized 



HISTORY OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 395 

into system. JSToah transplanted the germ of antediluvian 
piety into tlie new world, where it took root and early spread 
over the newly-peopled earth. 

Then followed the clearer manifestation of the truth to 
Abraham, which continued from the calling of the Father of the 
Faithful till the giving of the law at Sinai. Then came the 
gorgeous ceremonial of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, 
shadowing forth new truths and elucidating old ones, and all 
looking forward, with a clearer distinctness, to Christ the great 
Eeality. Then followed the spiritual kingdom of Christ, or 
the setting up of the true Tabernacle. 

In Judaism, which was the growth of a thousand years, and 
of which modern Judaism is the Popery, we meet the first 
great rescue and concentration of whatever was true in former 
systems of religion. In Christianity we have the first. This 
is the summation of the whole. 

But we are at present interested rather to trace the corre- 
sponding counterfeits, that we may see how men swerved from 
the simple truth as taught in Nature's Book, worshipping the 
work rather^ than the great Worker ; the creature than the 
Creator ; yet in the perversion there still remain the indubit- 
able traces of the original and the true. 

As " bewildering, inextricable a jungle of delusions, confu- 
sions, falsehoods and absurdities " as this Paganism is, it was 
once a true religion to its votaries. All false religions have 
had a truth in them, vestiges of which, more or less clear, are 
yet discoverable. In the clear light of revelation men have 
lost their original acute sensibility to the Divinity which shines 
in every star or every blade of grass. The Temple of Nature, 
once so beautifully and brilliantly luminous to its worshippers. 



396 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KENG. 

as lighted by ten thousand torches of its own, is dimmed — a 
shadow is cast over it by the meridian splendor of heaven's 
Great Light, and few but the thoughtful, the philosophic and 
the poetic, '' see God in every star and hear him in the wind." 

But in the beginning it was not so. In the earlier ages of 
our race there was a freshness in their sensibilities to natural 
objects — a vigor in their conceptions, which, in our greater 
privileges and refinement, we have lost. As the man deprived 
of his natural vision cultivates and realizes a kind of supernatural 
acuteness in the sense of feeling ; or the savage, before he loses 
his natural skill through the aid of well-marked roads and open 
fields, has a singular sagacity of wending his way through 
trackless deserts, and thickets dark and broad, so the ancients, 
guided only by Nature's torch-light, felt after God, and dis- 
covered Him and worshipped Him in a manner we know little 
of — in a manner we may rashly call heresy, yea worse, idola- 
try. But to them it was not idolatry. They worshipped the 
God they saw and knew and felt in his works. 

To the poor Sabean — di> physical man, all feeling in propor- 
tion to paucity of intellect and expression — wandering over his 
arid wastes, the "blue diamond brightness" of the sun is as the 
eye of the Eternal beaming upon him as it wakes a ray of the 
yet unrevealed splendor within. Here is to his untutored mind, 
his uncultivated imagination, y^t to his wildly sensitive heart, 
an emblem of the Great Divinity. Here is a " transcendent 
wonder," and he contemplates it with admiration without limit. 
Does he bow down, adore and fear? It is not the luminous 
ball which he worships ; it is some mighty, unseen Power or 
Intelligence — the essence or Being which he has disco v.ered in 
this emblem of the Deity. We may call this Sabeanism aad 



WOESHIP OF HEAYEKLT BODIES. 397 

laugh at, or condemn, or compassionate the monstrosity which 
has, through the perversion of human depravity grown out of 
it. We may justly be astonished that vast generations of 
rational men should for so long a time have been befogged in 
such an ^' inextricable jungle of delusions " as this system at 
length became ; yet in its early stages it was neither delusion 
nor falsehood. It was man in his childish simplicity and in 
the native sensibility of his soul worshipping in the open Tem- 
ple of Nature. He sees God, who is invisible, and pays Him 
such adoration and fear as he feels to be His due. 

For the same reasons the moon and the stars would in time 
become objects of adoration as lesser emblems of the same 
effulgent Glory hid beyond the clouds. Such may be taken as 
the origin and character of all those provinces of Paganism 
where the heavenly bodies were made objects of Divine wor- 
ship, as in Sabeanismand the religion of the Scandinavians, or 
the Norse system. 

The transition from such a system of worship to that of 
hero or man-worship was easy and natural — and, withal, an 
advancement of the original idea. If every natural object 
shadowed forth, more or less distinctly, the Supreme Divinity, 
much more would God's noblest work — the image of himself. 
Man would become a yet more striking object of high and 
ceaseless admiration. Yet not man in his fallen degenerate 
state, but man as he symbolizes the Great Prototype — ^man 
when viewed at so great a distance or at so commanding a 
height as to obscure what of human imperfection there is about 
him, and at the same time to' magnify all there is divine in him, 
and all that imagination chooses to supply. 

The worship of the Christian's God is hero-worship — a 



398 THE PALACE OF THE GEE AT KING. 

heartfelt prostration — love, fear, boundless admiration and 
obedience to the man of Nazareth. Discovered as the '^ bright- 
ness of his Father's glory and the express image of his per- 
son," he is to the Christian the one among ten thousand — alto- 
gether lovely — the hero of his heart, the fit object of all 
adoration and praise. 

But we have discovered a germ of the same root far, far 
back, beyond the long night of ages on which the day-spring 
from on high arose. 

As a matter of philosophy, Christianity is not a new relig- 
ion. Christ was in reality, and in full-orbed perfection, what 
the early sages among mankind dimly portrayed in their hero- 
gods. Guided by the dim starlight which Heaven then afforded 
them, they clothed their heroes with such attributes as seemed 
to them divine ; they made them godlike and worshipped them 
as gods. It was not Thor (the thunderer — the hero — giant or 
man) whom they worshipped, but the Mighty One who thun- 
dered — the Great Unknown, who shook the earth with his 
power. "^ 

As an example of this I might refer the reader to the well 
known incarnations of Vishnoo of Hindoo mythology, in which 
he will scarcely fail to discover the true idea of an incarnation 
of the Deity. But we are furnished with a more striking 
illustration in the case of Osiris, the celebrated hero-god of 
the Egyptians. This Deity, about whom clustered all the hopes 
of immortality, was fabled to have slept in death and to have 
risen triumphant over the powers of evil. He was acknowl- 

*■ The writer acknowledges indebtedness, in these paragraphs, to 
Hero-worship, by Thomas Carlyle. 



OSIEIS THE HEEO-GOD OF EGYPT. 399 

P 

edged as tlie God to be worshipped throughout the great valley 
of the Nile. 

There is something singular in the history of this Incarna- 
tion. Osiris is the Messiah of the old Egyptian religion, and, 
it is remarkable how many of the attributes of the true Mes- 
siah are made to appear in him. The oath taken in his name 
was the most inviolable of all oaths. He was the Judge of the 
living and the dead. Goodness was his primary attribute ; 
and that Goodness was displayed in his leaving the abodes of 
Paradise, taking a human form, going about doing good, and 
then sinking into death in a conflict with evil, that he might 
rise again to spread blessings over the world, and be rewarded 
with the office of Judge of the living and the dead. Osiris is 
called the " Grace Manifester " — " Truth Kevealer " — '^Opener 
of Good." The ancient records speak of him, too, as "full of 
grace and truth." He was the Supreme God in Egypt, and 
the only one whose name was never pronounced. 

In all these points there is certainly a very singular as- 
similarity of attributes — life, death and resurrection — with 
that of the Christian's Messiah. But whence this assimila- 
tion ? Perchance, it may be replied, Abraham had clear con- 
ceptions of Him who was to come, and he communicated this 
knowledge to the Egyptians on his first visit there. But hefoi^e 
Abraham's day, this singular ritual of Osiris was known and 
celebrated. " Tombs as old as the Pyramids declare all this." 
Others trace this knowledge through a channel further back. 
Are not these the indelible traces of Noah's preaching on the 
mind of the world ? Noah was a " preacher of righteousness." 
His immediate posterity, acquainted no doubt with the revela- 
tions already made concerning the Messiah, settled in Egypt, 



400 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 
% 

became the founders of an empire there — the compilers of their 
sacred books and originators of their religious system. There 
is, perhaps, no such thing as a religion founded on absolute 
falsehood. All false religions, as I have said, are the perver- 
sions of a true religion. The religion of ancient Egypt was 
undoubtedly made up of such religious notions as were extant 
at the time, and it is not strange that so prominent an element 
of the true religion should be found incorporated in this ancient 
system. 

But all this was physical religion — at least but intellectual — 
involving little or nothing of the moral element. It worshipped 
a Natural Divinity — a God of strength, valor, prowess, the 
Grand Architect and Garnisher of the heavens — the Thunderer 
— the Great Man — the Hero or Great Spirit. And the wor- 
shipper spends himself in wonder and admiration — perhaps in 
praise. God is made to appear in his mighty power rather 
than in his infinite mercy. 

Not till a much later period do we find the moral element 
introduced into Eeligious Beliefs. That the Divine Power 
which they worshipped had a moral basis — that God is a moral 
Governor, and men subjects of a moral Government, they 
did not discover. The introduction of this element was an ad- 
vanced step in the history of religion — the result of a special 
revelation. How much of the moral was introduced into 
these early systems from revelations made to the patriarchs 
and early prophets, we cannot determine. True it is that the 
darkness of human depravity soon overshadowed the fairest of 
these forms of belief. The light in them became darkness — 
and we now can only discover what in them was true, by its 
counterfeit ; seeing the spurious coin we judge of the genuine. 



JUDAISM NOT A NEW RELIGION. 401 

In the progress of Eeligious Belief, I said, came Judaism 
— not a new Keligion, but a new dispensation of the ancient 
Faith, clothed in new light and the moral element more dis- 
tinctly marked. Moses was not an originator, but a compiler. 
The beggarly elements of the world were now clothed in a 
celestial dress. The physical yielded to the moral. God 
revealed himself as the Moral Governor. The scattered rays 
of light which had hitherto done little more among the na- 
tions than to make the surrounding darkness visible, now con- 
centrated on Sinai, burst forth from the terrific cloud with all 
the vividness of a new revelation and all the terribleness of 
the divine Majesty, challenging the homage and love of a 
rebellious race. These collected rays were woven into a 
beam, which we call the divine law. What of God had been 
but indistinctly shadowed forth in nature, or imperfectly re- 
vealed to the Patriarchs, was now clearly made known. His 
moral character was made to stand out in bold relief; of which 
his law was made the transcript. Doctrines, duties, precepts 
were of consequence marked with equal clearness. It was a 
new and vastly improved edition of any previous system of 
faith. It was truth developed, defined, emancipated as coming 
from the hands of the Patriarchs to whom God had intrusted 
the clearest revelations of himself — or Truth rescued from the 
the abuse, corruption and darkness into which it had fallen in 
the hands of surrounding pagan nations. 

An imposing ceremonial — new only in its form, was now 
adopted. Here again Moses was not the originator. Most of 
the rites and ceremonies of the Levitical Law were already in 
vogue. Moses collected the scattered fragments and wrote 
them in a Book — reduced a distracted ceremonial to order — 



402 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

defined the number, circumstances and uses of such rites as 
God approved, instituted an order of men who should take 
charge of this department, designated the persons who should 
hold this office, and made the whole more clearly significant. 
It now became a system with an officiating priesthood and a 
law, all setting forth a Messiah who should come. 

I have said there was, originally, truth in the old systems 
of Paganism : originally founded in truth — much of reality in 
them — a worship of God as they knew Him — or through the 
sources by which he revealed himself to them. But times 
change. What was true became in a sense false. Further 
revelations gave men higher vieivs of God on the one hand — 
and further developments of human depravity led men to lose 
sight of God in the objects they worshipped as true emblems 
of the Divinity, and to worship these objects themselves. 
• The old systems existed for a purpose — answered that 
purpose — lasted or will last till the good and true is transfused 
into the new, and then will die, having done the work of their 
generation. 

The design of Judaism, (or of Christianity,) therefore, in her 
indignant denunciation of Paganism, is not the condemnation 
of the truth which was there, but it is to bring religion back to 
that truth — and not that truth only, but to that truth as ex- 
panded, and cleared from the dross of error ; and its boun- 
daries enlarged by the rich accessions of all subsequent reve- 
lations. New mines were opened, richer and more abundant, 
and yet all the pure gold of the old ones was carefully pre- 
served and worked into the new Tabernacle. 

But the general views taken in the foregoing treatise supply, 
in this connection, another closing thought. It is that we 



THE ONE COMMON EELIGION. 403 

discover herein, reasons for one common and universal Religion, 
which shall finally pervade every human heart, and inclose in 
its broad fold the entire family of man. 

All nature proclaims such a consummation for man ; and in 
equal distinctness proclaims Christianity to be such a Eeligion. 
It is, as no other religion, adapted to man's wants, to his 
progress and to his full development, whether it be in this 
life or in the life to come. It is under the auspices of this 
form of religion that mind is quickened and matured and 
made to subserve the great purposes of human advancement — 
that human genius is set on the alert of invention and discovery 
— that the powers of nature are evolved, applied and appro- 
priated to man's use and progress. It is this form of religion 
which addresses itself to the heart, and cultivates the moral 
feelings, and evolves and applies the moral powers of man. It 
addresses itself to the whole man, develops all his powers, and 
fits him for his full and final destiny. 

It is a service, adoration and praise paid to the God of 
nature. It is a supreme veneration of the Power that made 
the world, and keeps every star in its course, and manages the 
great universal machine as he pleases. It is the supreme" ad- 
miration of the Wisdom which devises, adjusts, preserves and 
adapts all things so as to secure the whole against a single 
failure, and to bring out of the whole the great and benevolent 
end designed. It is the ''transcendent wonder" of the love 
and benevolence of God in so forming, controlling and adjust- 
ing all things as to bring good out of the whole. No poison 
is so venomous that it is not made to yield a sweet ; no cloud 
so dark, no tempest so devastating, no providential dispensation 
SO disastrous that it yields not in the end some permanent and 
substantial good. 



404 THE PALACE OF THE GEEAT KING. 

In the highest possible sense, then, the Keligion of Christ is 
a Natural Eeligion. Did we need further proof of this we 
should find it in its peculiar adaptations to the social Sind civil 
progress of man. It is this form of religion, which, either in 
its more immediate bearings, or in its remoter outgoings, is 
revolutionizing the world. It has made the earth to disgorge 
its mineral wealth, and has molded it into every conceivable 
utensil, tool, or machine that can contribute to human progress. 
It has, in the form of modern commerce, traversed every sea, 
made nations neighbors, increased beyond all precedent the 
wealth of the world, checkered every land with Eailways and 
Telegraphs, and conveyed abroad the messengers of the cross 
and all the means and appliances for the universal diffusion of 
the gospel. It has translated the Bible into almost every 
foreign tongue, and given a power and ubiquity to the Press 
quite unknown in the world before. It is the author of all 
the freedom in the world — the founder of all constitutional 
government ; and it has pervaded the world at large with a 
higher degree of intelligence, and the diffusion of the higher 
type of civilization which now blesses the world. And what 
but the expansive, rousing, enterprising spirit infused by 
Christianity has so stimulated the migratory instincts of men 
at the present day ? These are indicative of the no-distant 
advances which await our race — precursive of the breakiug-up 
of old reclusive habits of the species, and introductory of a 
system by which different branches of the human family be- 
come better known to each other, and by an interchange of 
sentiments and thoughts, as well as of the commodities of 
commerce, they contribute to a mutual and indefinite advance- 
ment. 



CHRISTIANITY MADE FOR MAN. 405 

Cliristianity, as its most obvious impress indicates, and its 
most spontaneous workings everywhere vouch, tvas made for 
man — for man in his expansion into a full manhood — for man 
as the proprietor and controller of all the powers and resources 
of nature as placed at his disposal for his advancement, wheth- 
er physical, mental or religious, and the realization of all he 
is promised, and all he is capable of here or hereafter. 

No other religion has ever exercised in the world this trans- 
forming power — no other contains in itself, the elements of such 
transformations. False religions are local in their character — 
temporary in duration, and mercenary in their application, and 
degrading and oppressive in proportion as their spirit pervades 
the hearts and minds of their votaries. They are most 
obviously made for the priest, the king and the devil, and not 
for the people — not for the expansion of the human mind — 
not for the cultivation of the human heart — not to elevate 
society, cherish freedom, define and protect human rights, or 
bless the race. 

There are two features of our religion which, contemplated 
in the present connection, commend it as a religion especially 
for man. They are its social character, and its teaching 
ministry. In these two features it differs, essentially, from 
all false religions, and challenges its claims to universal regard 
and adoption by the whole family of man. In proportion as a 
religion is spurious it substitutes a ritual for a sermon ; a 
ceremonial and a solitary worship for the social and public 
worship of the sanctuary — penance for repentance ; and the 
dogmas of priests for the simple teachings of the word of 
God. 

We ask not for a more satisfactory commendation of Chris- 



406 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 

tianity, triumphantly vindicating .its claims to universality, 
than the simple fact that it so exactly meets the iiatiire and the 
wants of man. Were man an isolated being — not connected 
with or dependent on his fellows, and had he not with them 
common interests as touching the things of religion and a 
common object of worship, he might then with more propriety 
talk of a solitary religion — another religion — that should excuse 
him from the duties of the common or social religion. But 
man is not an isolated being. So constructed is he in his 
original workmanship, and so circumstanced is he in this world, 
that he is as much dependent on his fellow-beings for the full 
and proper development and use of his religious affections and 
the profitable discharge of his religious duties, as he is for the 
expansion and improvement of his mental powers, or for the 
comfortable subsistence of his body. Our religious nature can- 
not develop itself in solitude — though religion has much to do 
with solitude, with the secret communings with the heart, with 
solitary communion with God. Yet religion is a thing suited 
to man as we find him in all his relationships in life — man as 
a social being — man as absorbed in business or borne down 
with labor or immersed in care — man as he sails on the smooth 
sea of prosperity with canvas full and every breeze propitious 
— or man as plunged beneath the billows of adversity. Hence 
sympathy, gratitude, kindness, love, patience, benevolence are 
no virtues at all if disconnected with the objects on which, or 
towards which they are to be exercised. Benevolence supposes 
a giver ; gratitude a receiver ; sympathy an object to be felt 
for ; patience one to be borne with ; love an object of aftection ; 
kindness and pity imply objects of compassion. But these 
when properly exercised are all religious affections. 



THE DIVIlSrE PRESCIENCE COMPLETE. 407 

Children as we are of the same common parent — depend- 
ents one on another as the members of the same household, 
and heirs to the same wants and woes, we have grounds for 
common sympathies, for the exercise of affections in common ; 
we have one common object of worship — our ends and aims 
are one — our hopes and fears. 

It is the same God that waters all our fields — that makes 
his sun mature our fruits — that sits over our several dwellings 
and preserves our households from alarm, from fire, from plague, 
disease and death. And where is the household who would 
be so ungrateful, so impious as not to acknowledge, by an act 
oi public recognition, their public Friend and Benefactor. 

And here we have an argument, did we need one, why all 
men, everywhere, and as often as the appointed day returns, 
should assemble in the place appointed for the worship of God. 

Strange it were, if fellow-travellers to eternity — if men of 
like wants and woes, of like hopes and fears — with the same 
difiiculties to overcome, the same passions to subdue, the same 
temptations to meet — the same road to travel and the same 
end to obtain, should not feel the need of, and should not, in 
the sanctuary, be able to acquire much common instruction. 
Important as the topics of instruction are in our seminaries of 
learning, they fall into utter insignificance when compared with 
the topics which occupy the attention during the hours of di- 
vine worship. What is time to eternity — things seen and 
temporal to things unseen and eternal 1 What is the meat 
that perishes, the riches that vanish away like a dream — the 
pleasures that deceive, the honors that fade, the life that is 
but a vapor, to the bread of heaven, to the riches, pleasures 
and honors which will bloom in eternal youth — to the life 



408 



THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KING. 



which shall never cease *? What is earth to heaven — what all 
that pertains to earth to that exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory prepared for them who love God. 

Such are but the every-day themes of instruction in the 
sanctuary. Here the science of immortality is taught — the 
art of transmuting the vile metals of earth into eternal gold — 
of prolonging a happy existence throughout an endless eter- 
nity, is inculcated. Are you oppressed with the cares of the 
world — is your soul cast down amidst it afflictions — do you 
labor and feel yourself heavy-laden % A voice from the sanc- 
tuary says : " The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble ; the 
name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from 
the sanctuary^ and strengthen thee out of Zion^ Does his 
soul famish amidst the husJcs of this poor world, and long for 
more substantial meat ? Again a voice of encouragement comes 
from the sanctuary : '' We shall be satisfied with the goodness 
of thy house, even of thy holy TempleP 



THE END. 



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